The number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 7.2% to over 1.8m in the three months to January, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
This represented a rise of 126,400 on the same period a year earlier.
Nearly half of the trips, 841,700, were made by residents of Great Britain, while visits from other European countries rose 2.3% to 588,500.
Between November and January trips to Ireland by North American residents jumped by nearly a third to 314,500, when compared with the same period the previous year.
Meanwhile, the CSO figures also show the number of overseas trips made by people living in Ireland rose by 12.4% to just over 1.5m.
Tourism Ireland welcomed the figures, with its CEO Niall Gibbons saying they were “very positive”.
He added: “Our focus now is on the year ahead. Our aim is to grow overseas tourism revenue in 2017 by +4.5%, to €5.7 billion, for the island of Ireland.
“Our promotions will receive a tremendous boost next month, with our Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day set to be even bigger and better than ever before.
“St Patrick’s Day traditionally marks the real start of the tourism season for us and we will be taking every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile.”
