CSO figures for overseas tourism have shown a mixed picture for February to April 2017.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said he was pleased with the performance from North America as CSO figures confirmed an increase of almost 26%.
Visitor numbers from Australia and developing markets are up almost 17%. Mainland Europe grew by over 2%.
“Building on the success of recent years and sustaining growth into the future is our focus now. The challenge of Brexit is very real and the drop in British visitor numbers (-10.7%) for the February to April period reflects that.
"We continue to work with our industry partners, to diversify our tourism markets. Some years back, Tourism Ireland identified North America and Mainland Europe as the markets which offer the strongest return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure," he said.