Number of foreign visitors up 8.5% on last year – CSO

Cate McCurry, PA

There has been an increase in the number of foreign visitors to Ireland, with some 622,300 travellers arriving in May, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to last year, new figures indicate.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the largest contingent of visitors came from Britain at 34.9 per cent, followed by the United States (20.2 per cent), and then (7.4 per cent).

The visitors stayed a total of 4,462,100 nights in the country, a drop of 0.3 per cent compared to May 2023.

The visitors’ most frequent reason for travelling to Ireland was for holiday or leisure at 45.1 per cent.

Visitors spent €810.6 million in total on their trips, an increase of 29 per cent when compared to May 2023.

Gregg Patrick, a statistician in the CSO tourism and travel division, said: “The results show that 622,300 foreign visitors departed Ireland on oversea routes in May 2024, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared with May 2023.

“Some 34.9 per cent of the visitors were from Great Britain, 20.2 per cent were from the United States, and 7.4 per cent were from . Typically, their visit lasted 7.2 nights.

Foreign visitors increase 8.5% in May 2024https://t.co/eu8zBWauo8#CSOIreland #Ireland #Tourism #Travel #Holidays #LoveIreland #OverseasTravel #AirAndSeaTravel #Aviation #InboundTourism pic.twitter.com/i5uHiWmABc

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) June 27, 2024

“Their most frequent reason for their journey (45.1 per cent) was for holiday or leisure purposes.”

Around half of the visitors stayed in hotels, and the typical cost of their visit was €1,303, comprising €334 on fare, €51 on prepayments, €437 on accommodation, and €480 on day-to-day expenditure.

Their average cost 12 months previously was €1,096.

Of the 622,300 foreign visitors who left Ireland on overseas routes in May 2024, the highest proportion was from Britain, ing for 217,200 of all visitors (34.9 per cent).

The second-highest proportion, at 20.1 per cent, was from the United States, ing for 125,400 visitors.

The third-highest proportion (7.4 per cent) came from , comprising a further 46,300 visitors.

This visitor profile remains largely unchanged from May 2023, when 34.8 per cent of the visitors were from Britain, 18.4 per cent from the United States, and 7.7 per cent from .

Foreign visitors who left Ireland on overseas routes in May 2024 spent a total of 4,462,100 nights in the country.

Broken down by residency, other European visitors spent more nights in the country than any other residency group, ing for 1,669,100 (37.4 per cent) of the nights.

The next most important visitor group, in of nights spent, was the United States and Canada, making up 1,248,800 (28.0 per cent) of the total nights.

Visitors from Britain were the third most significant, ing for a further 1,041,300 (23.3 per cent) of the nights.

Other visitors made up 502,800 (11.3 per cent) of the nights.

Compared to May 2023, the total visitor nights in the country remained largely the same, decreasing by 0.3 per cent.

In total, 2,057,800 engers left Ireland on overseas routes in May 2024, an increase of 8.4 per cent compared with May 2023.

The majority of departing engers were Irish residents heading outbound for tourism or other purposes, at 61 per cent.

A further 8.8 per cent were same-day visitors, comprising Northern Ireland residents heading outbound using an airport or seaport in the Republic of Ireland (3.3 per cent), foreign resident transfer engers (4.6 per cent), or other foreign resident same-day visitors (0.9 per cent).

Some 30.2 per cent of the departing engers were foreign resident overnight visitors, constituting 622,300 visitors in total.