Spain, Portugal, France and Italy topped Irish holidaymakers’ favourite travel spots this summer, new data from digital bank Revolut has found. The company, which has more than 2.8 million customers in Ireland, said two-thirds of that number spent money abroad between the start of May and the end of July.
Spain was the most popular destination, with over 300,000 travellers spending money there. The US also appeared on the list of most popular destinations, with 65,000 customers using their Revolut account. More than half a million customers spent money in the UK during the period.
Yet while around two-third of the company’s Irish customers spent money abroad, Revolut said there was also a trend towards staycations, with record domestic spending during July. That is in addition to the 1.5 million Revolut customers from abroad who visited Ireland during the summer period. The fintech said the UK, Poland, Spain, Romania, Italy and France accounted for more than 80 per cent of those visiting here.
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Revolut, which operates in more than 30 countries around the world, is covered by a Lithuanian banking licence in Ireland and the rest of the euro zone. That allows it to offer a wider range of financial products to customers, including loans and current accounts.
It was awarded a banking licence from the UK regulator in July, ending a three-year wait and bringing it into a “mobilisation” stage to allow the firm to complete building out its banking operations in advance of launching in the market.
The fintech has more than 45 million customers worldwide, building steadily from its launch in the UK in 2015.
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