sept 13 2009 151 the worldfamous guinness storehouse in dublin was irelands most visited attraction last year with over one million people entering through its doors according to failte ireland while the guinness site located in the heart st jamess gate brewery ranked first with tourists dublin zoo came in second attracting crowds of more than 930000 in 2008 the cliffs of moher in county clare ranked at third with 808000 visitors last year the famous 700foot cliffs are currently in the running to become one of the new seven wonders of the world in an international competition bord failte says that visitor numbers could increase by as many as 350000 per year if the attraction is chosen out of the 20 most visited feepaying attractions in ireland over half were located in dublin which some say highlights the lack of quality tourist sites outside of the capital filte irelands director of business development and investment paul keely commented on the organizations findings saying that cultural and historical visits are on the top of most irish tourists lists with almost 34 million overseas visitors traveling to irish culture sites in fact 51 percent of visitors to ireland cited culture or history as their reason for choosing the emerald isle as a vacation destination despite the difficult year and downturn these figures highlight once again the popularity of our visitor attractions and the integral part they play in the overall visitor experience keely said with cultural tourists spending almost double the amount of a citybreak tourist it is estimated that the cultural tourism sector is worth 2 billion euros to the irish economy every year ireland tourism suffered big drop in 2009 this years tourism statistics will show a major drop in the number of overseas visitors to ireland which were down by more than 10 percent in the first half of 2009 the irish tourism industry has admitted it has been one of the worst periods in its history as ireland welcomed around 400000 less visitors than usual between january and june