Storehouse still No 1

The Guinness Storehouse celebrated a 10 per cent increase in visitor numbers last year having welcomed over a million (1,025,677) through its doors, thus retaining its position as Ireland’s top international visitor attraction.

The highest-ever visitor numbers to the Storehouse were recorded in 2008 at 1,038,910.

Despite the economic downturn the Storehouse also ranked as the fourth-largest brand visitor attraction in the world.
The visits of Queen Elizabeth II and US President Barack Obama are believed to have had a positive impact on visitor numbers as did a very successful St Patrick’s Day Festival and the launch of ‘Five’, an entirely new experience dedicated to ‘Guinness and Food’. Together these helped the Storehouse play host to one in every two holidaymakers visiting Dublin, according to Storehouse Managing Director Paul Carty.

Alex Connolly, Head of Communications at Fáilte Ireland, emphasised, “If we can maintain this momentum in 2012, there is every reason to believe that the Storehouse and all our other key tourism attractions can further increase visitor numbers this year. That will be good for tourism and great for our economy”.
 
92% of all visitors to the Guinness Storehouse are from overseas with the top five visiting nations last year being from the US (up five per cent on the 2010 figure), Germany (up 17 per cent), the UK, Ireland (up 14 per cent) and Italy (up five per cent).
Visits from Spain (up 15 per cent) Scandinavia (up nine per cent), France (up eight per cent), Australia and New Zealand (both up four per cent) also showed significant growth in 2011. Summertime is peak season in the Storehouse with the month of August ranking as the busiest month in its history with 116,021 visitors.