Aye – http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/overseas-visits-to-ireland-down-between-august-and-october-297545-Dec2011/

Also, this is coming from Tourism Ireland who never fail to talk themselves or their sector up. They recently enough likened Diarmud Gavin’s ‘garden’ yoke hanging from a construction crane to the Eiffel Tower and claimed that’d would draw almost the same level of tourism. They haven’t a clue

@ mart_n: And yet you are talking about Diarmid Gavin’s crane thing, so maybe they are doing something right in that they are getting you to talk about it?

And whatever the miserable naysayers on here say, four days of largely positive coverage on all the major UK news sources was very good for tourism in this country. And overall the UK figures are up impressively.

Google Analytics, bookings, inquiries. It’s quiet easy to see in fact.

Most visits from the UK to Ireland are short breaks rather than two week holidays though, and on average short breaks tend to be booked far closer to the departure date than long holidays.

Because the Queen was here for four days I think most people would agree that her visit was far more important than Obama’s 12 hour quick stopover.

And I don’t see how we were “recognised by a foreign colonial power.” We just had a state visit by the head of another state.

I take your point about visitors from England, Scotland and Wales being more likely to be on short breaks. For whatever reason they decided to come – any of my English friends who were here this year certainly weren’t persuaded by any state visit – it’s positive for the country.

On your other point, however, it’s obvious that the Queen of England coming to Ireland was much more than the visit of another head of state. Indeed another over-privileged royal, Albert of Monaco, was here this year and he did not recieve a sycophantic response from any section of Irish society. As Mrs. Windsor did, it illustrates that the colonial mindset is alive and well among certain people here in Ireland, both north and south.

lowest in Europe.

Did I hit a nerve Tim?

The hotels are so cheap because we built so many of them due to unnecessary tax breaks. They may be cheapest in Europe but everything else is a rip off. I suspect they come more for the craic and because people have such affection for the Irish and of course the amazing beauty of the place.

Go through Google Analytics for hotel websites and try to see any discernible increase that bucks the trend of bookings or searches from Britain or America.

One of key reasons that we are up is that we are a global news story due to the depth of the recession here and how prices are coming down. Greece’s tourism figures are also up this year, they have had daily riots in Athens and yet are still up in no’s.

Did the Queen of England and/or the Pres. of America, visit them as well??

It’s all about the no’s.