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

Some 622,300 foreign visitors arrived in to Ireland in May, the Central Statistics Office said (Damien Storan/PA)

By 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% compared to last year, new figures indicate.

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

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

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

Visitors spent 810.6 million euro in total on their trips, an increase of 29% 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% compared with May 2023.

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

We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.

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

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

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

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

The second highest proportion, at 20.1%, was from the United States, accounting for 125,400 visitors.

The third highest proportion (7.4%) came from Germany, comprising a further 46,300 visitors.

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

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, accounting for 1,669,100 (37.4%) of the nights.

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

Visitors from Great Britain were the third most significant, accounting for a further 1,041,300 (23.3%) of the nights.

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

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

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

The majority of departing passengers were Irish residents heading outbound for tourism or other purposes, at 61%.

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

Some 30.2% of the departing passengers were foreign resident overnight visitors, constituting 622,300 visitors in total.