• Overseas visitors increased by 5% to over 6.2 million people.
• British visitors increased to 3.44 million during 2000, an increase of 1%.
• North America visits increased by 10% to over one million visitors.
• Irish tourism generated foreign exchange earnings amounting to £3 billion.
• Tourism provides 150,000 jobs for the Irish economy.
• The main generators of growth from mainland Europe were from the Benelux and the Italian markets. As a whole Mainland Europe visitors were up by 6% to almost 1.4 million.
• The number of German and French visitors was slightly ahead of 1999 levels.
  
• The long haul is likely to be up 8 – 9%.

No. of Hotels by room capacity (%)	No. of Hotels by Star Classification(%)

No. of Guesthouese by room Capacity (%)	Regional Distribution of Hotels(%)

Regional Distribution of Guesthouses (%)	Employment Statistics in the Hotel & Guesthouse Sector
	Total employment in the hotel & guesthouse sector has increased by 45% since 1996, figures now show that a total of 60,600 people are employed in this sector. Of this figures 54,000 (89%) are permanent employees. Permanent Seasonal/Occasional Total Hotels 51,083 6,314 57,397 Guesthouses 2,877 386 3,263 Total 53,960 6,700 60,660