The number of people staying in hotels and guesthouses across Ireland reached its highest level last year since 2007.

According to the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), the average national room occupancy rate reached 64% in 2014. This compares with a 61% occupancy rate from the previous year.

The body says this is driven largely by an upturn in overseas visitor numbers.

It says that some €6.45bn in revenue was generated by Irish tourism in 2014, as 7.27 million overseas visitors came to Irish shores. That is an increase of 586,000.

There was also growth across all the key markets, including North America, which saw visitors up by 15% to 1.2 million in 2014.

More than 33,000 jobs have been created by the hospitality sector since 2011.

President of the IHF, Stephen McNally, says the recovery in cities will have a knock-on effect on more rural areas.

While IHF chief executive Tim Fenn says that the hotels sector has also benefited from a strengthened consumer confidence at home.

"Ireland is now firmly back on the tourism map and there is a real sense of optimism in the sector following a strong performance last year," he said.

"We've doubled our value-for-money rating among holidaymakers to 92% since 2009 and we've significantly upped our game on the marketing front with targeted campaigns from Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland achieving strong cut through and reinvigorating our tourism brand."

"Though still fragile, tourism businesses are seeing signs of an upturn in the home market with people gradually starting to take more trips at home and spending more money in the local economy."

"This is of tremendous importance given visitors from the island of Ireland account for 69% of all hotel bednights," he added.

Originally posted at 14.14