The Guinness Storehouse is celebrating a record number of visitors for 2015 as 1,498,124 guests passed through its doors over the last 12 months, breaking the previously held record of 1,267,807 in 2014.

This represents an 18 per cent increase on the 2014 visitor numbers and sees the Home of Guinness retaining its position as Ireland’s number one international visitor attraction.

Mirroring current trends in Irish tourism, visitors from the UK and the US made up half of all visitors to the Guinness Storehouse throughout 2015, followed by visitors from mainland Europe and Ireland.

Nearly one in three visitors to the Guinness Storehouse in 2015 were from the UK, (a 98 per cent growth in the past year); followed by United States of America (22 per cent) Ireland (seven per cent), France (six per cent) and Germany (six per cent).

China (up 38 per cent year on year) and the Netherlands (up 34 per cent) represented the other biggest growth markets compared to 2014.

Celebrating the record breaking visitor numbers, Paul Carty, managing director of Guinness Storehouse commented: “2015 was an incredibly successful year for us at the Guinness Storehouse.

“We celebrated 15 years of welcoming visitors to the Home of Guinness just last month and in September were named ‘Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction’ at the World Travel Awards, winning more votes than the likes of the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum.

“Today is a very proud day for the Guinness Storehouse team and for tourism in Ireland as we celebrate the 1.4 million visitors that walked through our doors in 2015.

“Over the coming year we will be announcing new innovations and developments that will further enhance our offering and we look forward to welcoming many more visitors to the Home of Guinness in 2016.”