Spielberg Has Close Encounter With Ireland

It has emerged that Hollywood movie director Steven Spielberg has been secretly enjoying a summer holiday in Ireland.

Mr Spielberg has been taking in the Irish Countryside with his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, and their teenage son.

The famous director, who brought blockbusters such as Jaws, Indiana Jones, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to cinema audiences around the world, visited the Aran Islands with his family and stayed at the Ballyvaughan Country Holiday Homes complex in the Burren.

According to reports, the family went on to Ballyvaughan village, before taking to the east coast yesterday.

The news falls coincidentally with new figures released by the Central Statistics Office that foreign tourism rates have fallen by 12%.

According to the Government figures, released today, the number of visits to Ireland fell 12% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2008.

During the April-June period, a total of 1,902,000 overseas visits were made to Ireland compared with 2,159,000 in the same period of 2008. Trips for holiday, leisure, and recreation purposes fell by 20 per cent, the CSO reported.

Along with the drop in tourism it seems unlikely that Mr Speilberg's visit will bring any more revenue than the family's holiday expenditure, as it is thought they are touring strictly for leisure purposes.

No scripts have so far emerged for Indian Jones and the Search for the Blarney Stone.

(DW/BMcC)