The number of visitors to Ireland in the last quarter of 2011 was down 3% when compared to the same period in the previous year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
The overall number of visitors to Ireland in 2011 was up 7.8%, however, with nearly 6,505,200 coming to Ireland during the year.
1,369,700 people travelled to Ireland between October and December 2011, down from 1,414,300 during the same three months of 2010.
This bucks the upward trend for the year which saw 6,505,200 coming to Ireland, up 468,100 on the previous year.
Almost 240,000 of those additional visitors were from European countries excluding Britain.
The number of Irish people taking overseas trips was also down during the last quarter of 2011, with 11,500 fewer people going abroad than in 2010.
This brought the total decline in overseas trips by Irish residents during 2011 to 279,200, down 4.4%.
