Business

Tourists spent almost half a billion euro in Ireland last month

Most frequent reason for visiting Ireland was for holiday or leisure

The Guinness Storehouse at St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin is one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions. Photograph: Tim Clayton/Getty

Colin Gleeson
Fri Dec 22 2023 - 16:40

Tourists spent almost half a billion euro in Ireland last month, according to data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Of the 447,500 foreign visitors who departed Ireland on overseas routes in November, 40.8 per cent were from Britain, 16.8 per cent were from the United States and 6.6 per cent were from Germany, the figures show.

The CSO said the expenditure of foreign visitors on their trips to Ireland over the month amounted to €441.1 million. The most frequent reason for visiting Ireland was for holiday or leisure purposes (39.6 per cent).

The tourists stayed a total of 3,082,300 nights in the country, which equated to an average of 6.9 nights.

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About 46.5 per cent stayed in hotels, and the mean cost of their trips to Ireland was €986. This comprised €240 on fares, €27 on prepayments, €312 on accommodation and €406 on day-to-day expenditure.

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In total, 1,361,500 passengers departed Ireland on overseas routes in November. The majority of these (57.9 per cent) were Irish residents heading outbound for tourism or other purposes.

A further 9.3 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 (3.7 per cent); or other foreign resident same-day visitors (1.6 per cent).

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Some 32.9 per cent of the departing passengers were foreign resident overnight visitors, constituting 447,500 visitors in total.

In terms of expense, tourists spent €181.8 million on “day-to-day spending”, which includes most things apart from accommodation. The next costliest subheading was accommodation, at €139.7 million (31.7 per cent of the total).

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Fares cost a further €107.3 million (24.3 per cent). Lastly, prepayments, for items paid in advance such as car hire and pre-booked tickets, comprised just €12.3 million (2.8 per cent).

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter

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