The average room occupancy rate at Irish hotels rose sharply last year thanks to a rise in the number of tourists visiting the country.
The Irish Hotels Federation put the average national rate at 70% in 2015, up from 64% in 2014.
The IHF said the figure for last year was a 10 year high.
Revenue generated by tourism-related businesses was also up, rising by 10.7% to €7.27 billion. This accounted for 4% of the country's GDP.
Of this €5.76 billion was attributed to foreign exchange earnings from overseas visitors, up 12.9% on 2014. €1.5 billion came from home-grown tourism, up 3% on 2014.
The IHF said its members had also seen a positive start to this year, though it said that hotels outside of larger urban areas were lagging behind the national average.
The IHF's chief executive Tim Fenn said the creation of over 33,000 new jobs by tourism and hospitality businesses since 2011 highlights the vital economic role being played by the sector as an engine of growth and employment.
The tourism industry as a whole now supports about 205,000 jobs, which is equivalent to 11% of total employment in the country. Over 57,000 of these jobs are in the hotels sector.
Mr Fenn said that Irish hotels are among the most competitively priced in Europe and much lower than the country's key competitors.
While there has been some growth in rates recently, Mr Fenn said it was important to recognise that these are recovery room rates from a very low base following the downturn.
"This is enabling hoteliers to reinvest revenues within the sector, enable the industry to enhance its product and create additional employment," he added.
