DUBLIN, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The total number of overseas visitors to Ireland reached over 10.8 million in 2019, up by 1.8 percent over 2018, according to data released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.
In 2019, visitors from European countries other than Britain accounted for over 3.91 million, making up 36.18 percent of all the overseas visitors to the country, followed by Britain (over 3.78 million or 35.04 percent), the United States and Canada (over 2.41 million or 22.32 percent), and other areas (over 697,000 or 6.46 percent), showed the CSO figures.
Last year the biggest growth was seen in the number of visitors from other areas, which went up by 5.5 percent year-on-year, whereas the smallest growth was recorded in the number of visitors from Britain, which inched up by 0.8 percent over a year ago, said the CSO.
In 2019, the number of visitors from other European countries increased by 2.6 percent compared with a year ago whereas the number of visitors from the United States and Canada increased by 1.2 percent year-on-year, it said.
The CSO figures also showed that in 2019 Irish residents made a total number of 8.8 million overseas trips, up by 6.5 percent compared with the previous year.
Tourism Ireland, an agency responsible for attracting overseas visitors to the island of Ireland, said in a recent statement posted on its website that an estimated 100,000 Chinese people visited the island of Ireland in 2019 and it plans to increase the figure to 200,000 by the year 2025.
