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Foreign visitors spent an estimated €515m in Republic in December – CSO

Average of €1,156 spent on trips during the month, with the average stay lasting 10 nights

Irish residents heading abroad accounted for 60 per cent of the total numbers departing the State in December. Photograph: Alan Betson

Laura Slattery
Wed Jan 31 2024 - 14:25

Foreign visitors spent an estimated €514.5 million on their trips to the Republic in December 2023, according to an update from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Four in 10 of the foreign visitors who departed the Republic on overseas routes in December were from Britain, while some 12 per cent were from the US and 8.6 per cent were from Spain and Portugal.

Visitors from Britain spent €107.7 million on travel expenditure, while the sums spent by people from elsewhere in Europe reached €209.9 million. Visitors from the US and Canada spent €121.4 million and people of other residencies spent €75.4 million.

Overall, foreign visitors spent an average of €1,156 on their trips in December. This comprised €228 on fares, €79 on prepayments, €389 on accommodation and €460 on day-to-day expenditure.

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The average length of stay was 10.1 nights, while the most frequent reason for coming to the State was to visit family and friends, with this cited by four in 10 people.

Visitors stayed a total of 4,504,300 nights in the country in December 2023, according to the CSO’s inbound tourism statistics. The data series succeeded its air and sea travel statistics from mid-2023.

“The results show that among the 1,484,900 passengers departing Ireland on overseas routes in December 2023, some 445,200 (30 per cent) were foreign visitors completing their trips,” said Gregg Patrick, statistician in its tourism and travel division.

Irish residents heading abroad accounted for 60.1 per cent of the total, while a further 9.9 per cent were same-day visitors. This includes people from the North heading outbound via an airport or seaport in the Republic as well as foreign resident transfer passengers and some foreign resident same-day visitors.

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics

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