Ireland has been voted fourth in a list of 'dream destinations' by readers of a travel magazine in the United States.

Last year, Ireland came in at number nine in the same survey.

Almost 8,000 readers of Virtuoso Life publication took part in the seventh annual “Travel Dreams” survey to reveal their ideal destination, travel experience and ultimate trip of a lifetime.

Australia, Italy and New Zealand took the top three slots but Ireland was ranked ahead of France, South Africa and the Caribbean.

"We are delighted that Ireland is the number four dream destination of the readers of Virtuoso Life magazine – who are discerning, sophisticated and well-travelled, with a strong desire for authentic experiences, which Ireland has to offer in spades," said Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons.

"Tourism Ireland has been working hard to build awareness of the island of Ireland as a premier vacation destination for American travellers, including our co-operation with the Virtuoso travel agents across the US.

"The United States is an extremely important tourism market for the island of Ireland and we believe that we are on course to achieve our best year ever from that market.

"The most recent figures from the CSO showed a very positive start to 2013, with the strongest first half performance ever from North America. This year, we hope to welcome over one million American visitors, spending about US$1bn."

Virtuoso is a by-invitation-only network of over 330 travel agents specialising in luxury travel. The network’s magazine, Virtuoso Life, is published six times a year and is distributed to the homes of 200,000 affluent travellers and top clients of the Virtuoso travel agents.

Australia, Italy and New Zealand took the top three slots in the 2013 “Travel Dreams” survey – but Ireland was ahead of France, South Africa, the Caribbean, Greece and England.