Overseas visits to Ireland have increased by 6 per cent to 1.29 million for the first three months of 2005, compared with 1.22 million in the first quarter of 2004.

Tourism Ireland has welcomed the latest figures released by the Irish Central Statistics Office, but cautioned that the benefits of the increase have not been evenly felt across all sectors.

While visits to Ireland from Britain have risen by 3 per cent, the number of tourists travelling from North America dropped by 11 per cent during the first quarter of 2005.

Tourism Ireland said that although this decrease is disappointing, it should be benchmarked against the fact that in the same period last year numbers grew by 22 per cent.

The statistics also revealed that the number of bednights spent in guest houses has fallen by 19 per cent, with the trend towards shorter urban-based breaks amongst time poor/cash rich consumers impacting particularly strongly on Ireland’s regional tourism.