An extra half a million visitors, largely from the USA and Canada, have boosted Ireland’s tourism industry and filled hotel beds at the highest levels since 2007.

Traditional Irish image at the famous Ring of Kerry.

Traditional Irish image at the famous Ring of Kerry. Image by David McSpadden / CC BY 2.0

Failte Ireland figures show hotels and guesthouses at occupancy levels of 64% in 2014 with 7.3 million tourists choosing Ireland. That’s 586,000 up on 2013, according to the Irish Independent.

North American visitors grew 15% to 1.2m, British tourists grew 8% to 3.2m and visitors from the rest of Europe grew 7% to 2.5m.