Foreign visitors to Ireland spent €1.1 billion in August, which was up 10.2 per cent when compared with the same month last year, data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
Some 763,600 foreign visitors completed a trip to Ireland, representing an increase of 3.5 per cent compared with August 2023. The average cost of a trip was €1,437, whereas the average cost 12 months previous was €1,351.
Broken down by expense category, the costliest subheading was day-to-day spending, which covers things like eating out, entrance fees, and public transport, but excludes accommodation, amounted to €432.5 million (39.4 per cent of the total expenditure).
The next costliest subheading was accommodation at €333.8 million. Fares cost a further €277.5 million. Lastly, prepayments, which covers items such as car hire and pre-booked tickets, comprised €53.8 million.
Among the 763,600 foreign visitors who departed Ireland on overseas routes, 298,600 (39.1 per cent) stayed in a hotel. Another 290,900 had used family or friends or their own property as their main accommodation type.
A further 62,900 (8.2 per cent) of the visitors used guest house or a bed and breakfast as their main accommodation type, while 43,300 of the foreign visitors used rented or self-catering as their main accommodation type.
By way of comparison, in August 2023 some 297,000 visitors stayed in a hotel, 295,900 stayed in their own property or the property of family or friends, 45,700 used guest house or a bed and breakfast, and 36,600 stayed in rented or self-catering accommodation types.
The visitors stayed a total of 6.7 million nights in the country, which was a fall of 9.2 per cent over the year. The average length of stay for foreign resident overnight visitors was 8.7 nights, down from an average of 9.9 nights last year.
Among the 763,600 foreign visitors departing Ireland on overseas routes in August, almost half had holiday or leisure as the main reason for their trip. The next most likely reason was to visit family or friends, with 246,900 (32.3 per cent) of the visitors coming for this purpose.
Almost 10 per cent had come for business or work-related reasons. Visitors for holiday or leisure increased by 7.1 per cent whilst those visiting family or friends and visiting for business or work decreased by 0.9 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively.
The largest contingent of visitors of more than a third came from Britain, which was followed by the United States (18.8 per cent), and then Germany and France both at (7.4 per cent).
In total, 2.3 million passengers departed Ireland on overseas routes, which was an increase of 5.2 per cent.
The majority of departing passengers were Irish residents heading outbound for tourism or other purposes.
A further 9.9 per cent were same day visitors, comprising Northern Ireland residents heading outbound via an airport or seaport in the Republic (4 per cent), foreign resident transfer passengers (4.8 per cent), or other foreign resident same day visitors (1.1 per cent).
A third of departing passengers were foreign resident overnight visitors, constituting 763,600 visitors in total.
- Sign up for the Business Today newsletter and get the latest business news and commentary in your inbox every weekday morning
- Opt in to Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
