The number of tourists coming to Ireland from overseas increased last year while Irish residents made fewer trips abroad, according to the Central Statistics Office.
The total number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 7.9%
.In 2011, 6.6 million trips by non residents were made to the country compared to 6.1 million in 2010.
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, welcomed the figures, saying they confirm that Irish tourism showed strong signs of recovery in 2011.
Minister Varadkar said the figures show strong growth in the number of overseas holidaymakers coming to Ireland.
People travelling here are choosing to stay longer as the numbers of nights rose by 6.1% last year, up from 48 million to 50.9 million.
They are also spending more as expenditure increased by 0.7% between 2010 and 2011, from €3,556m to €3,580m.
However, Irish residents are making fewer trips abroad. In 2011, the number of overseas trips made fell by 4.2%, from 6.7 million to 6.4 million trips.
Overall, the total overseas tourism and travel expenditure of Irish residents declined by 7.2%, from €5,211m in 2010 to €4,835m in 2011.
Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said that the figures were the first insight into reasons for travel to Ireland in 2011. He said that the increase in holiday visitors is encouraging and said that anecdotal evidence points to further increases in holiday visitors.
He also said that although hotel occupancy is up on 2011, the spread is uneven, with urban areas, particularly Dublin faring better.
