6.3 million foreign visitors came to Ireland last year – CSO
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 6.3 million foreign visitors departed Ireland on overseas routes in 2023.
Overall, the visitors spent €7.3 billion on their trips. Of this €1.9 billion was spent on fares, €0.3 billion on prepayments – including car hire, pre-booked tickets and other non-accommodation items paid for in advance – €2.3 billion on accommodation and €2.8 billion on day-to-day spending.
The typical visitor spent €302 on their fare, €40 on prepayments, €375 on accommodation and €454 on day-to-day expenditure.
Of the 6.3 million foreign visitors who departed Ireland on overseas routes last year, the highest proportion (37.9%) was from Great Britain, accounting for 2.4 million of the visitors in total.
Residents of Great Britain spent 12.4 million nights in the country in total, giving an average length of stay of 5.2 days. They spent €1.5 billion in total on their trips, an average of €631 per person.
The second highest proportion of foreign visitors (18.3%) was from the US, accounting for 1.1 million visitors. They spent a total of 9.6 million nights in the country, an average length of stay of 8.4 days. US visitors spent a total of €2.4 billion on their trips – more than any other visitors with the average US visitor spent €2,142 on their trip.
The third highest proportion (7.1%) of foreign visitors came from Germany, who spent 3.8 million nights in the country in total, staying on average 8.5 days. In total the German visitors spent €0.5 billion on their trips, working out as an average of €1,129 per German visitor.
Today’s figures show that the visitors’ most frequent reason (40.6%) for travelling to Ireland was for holidays and they stayed a total of 51.1 million nights in the country.
The visitors stayed on average 8.2 nights and spent on average €1,171 on their trips.
The second most frequent reason for travelling to Ireland was to visit family or friends, with 2.3 million visitors coming for this purpose. These visitors typically stayed longer than the holidaymakers, with an average length of stay of 8.2 nights and spent 18.9 million nights in the country in total.
But they also spent typically less than the holidaymakers, paying on average €721 on their trips (€1.7 billion in total).
A total of 918,600 foreign visitors had come for business or work purposes. These business visitors typically had the shortest trips (6.3 nights on average) and stayed a total of 5.8 million nights. They spent €1,161 on their trips on average, or €1.1 billion in total.
The CSO said that 7.1% of the visitors to Ireland also visited Northern Ireland, with 77.8% visiting the North for holiday or leisure.
On average, they stayed 2.2 nights in Northern Ireland and spent €237 while they were there.
Article Source – 6.3 million foreign visitors came to Ireland last year – CSO – RTE
