Ireland looks to attract Indian students, travellers

With the decline in euro, Ireland is looking to attract Indian students as well as travellers, James Reilly, Minister for Child and Youth Affairs, said.

“We have around 1,800 post-graduate Indian students currently. The student visa can be extended for a year upon graduating to look for jobs.  Hence, they can stay back longer,” Reilly told BusinessLine.Medicine is an area that attracts Indian students as well as practising doctors, he added.

The Minister is in the country to promote Ireland as a tourism as well as education destination.

Ireland has doubled the number of Indian student arrivals in the last three years. “Our target is to attract 2,000-5,000 Indian students within the next three years,” Feilim McLaughlin, Ambassador of Ireland to India, said, adding that given the decline of the euro, Ireland has become competitive compared with the traditional countries that Indian students go to, such as the US, Australia or London.

Tourism too rise

With respect to tourism, Ireland has witnessed a 9 per cent increase in international arrivals.

In February this year, British Irish Visa Scheme came into force for Indian travellers, under which Indians can now travel to the UK and Ireland on a single-visit visa from either country, on the same trip.

“With the shared visa with the UK, travel has become easier. Visa costs come down by almost half in terms of processing and application fees,” McLaughlin said.

The country received 24,000 Indian visitors last year. “It has grown by 20 per cent annually over the last four years. We are looking at 36,000 Indian visitors in 2016-17,” he added.

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