With two weeks left to go, Ireland is already calling it a record year for tourism, with 10.65 million visitors spending some €5.78 billion in the country. It’s a 6.7% rise from last year, which was also a new record year.
Among the drivers of the increase have been global exposure on TV and film, with both Game of Thrones and the Star Wars film The Last Jedi filming important chunks in Ireland. The Minister of State for Tourism and Sport says that overseas tourism supports 225,000 jobs around the country.
It’s also a year in which getting to Ireland has become easier: Aer Lingus has expanded its U.S. routes to several new cities, new direct flights from the far east, including Hong Kong are opening, and a new ferry is adding sailings between Ireland and France. The increase in visitors has come from all of the island’s main overseas markets, with the exception of England. Visits from there have dropped by about 6% since the Brexit vote.
