Tourism to Ireland falls by 15% during March continuing a downward trend

Irish Examiner

29-04-2025

Inbound tourism numbers to Ireland fell during March by 15% to 441,200, continuing a downward trend which has been ongoing since September last year, new data from the Central Statistics Office shows.
During March 2024, there were 521,800 visitors to Ireland bringing the total number of inbound tourists for the first quarter to over 1.4m. In the same period this year, there have been just over 1.08m a 23% decrease.
It is also down 7% compared with the same period in 2023.
Gregg Patrick, statistician with the CSO, said these latest figures 'continues the downward year-on-year trend in foreign visitor numbers first observed in September 2024'.
'However, the decrease in March 2025 was less than the decrease in February 2025,' he added.
The largest contingent of visitors during the month came from Britain, with 176,100 visitors down 12% compared to March last year. The next highest was from the US, with 82,900 visitors arriving in Ireland down 18.2% from 101,400.
Irish visitors to the US were down significantly, by 27%, during March compared to the same period last year.
During February, there were just over 31,200 US visitors to Ireland accounting for 10% of all foreign visitors during the month. This was down by 15,400 compared to the same month last year.
A smaller decline was recorded in January with 46,600 US visitors to Ireland recorded - down from 50,200 the year prior.
During March, visitors from continental Europe were down 17%, visitors from North America in general were down 18%, and visitors from the rest of the world were down 24%.
Visitors to Ireland spent a combined €326m on their trips excluding fares. This is down 22% year-on-year. The average cost of their trips excluding fares in March was €738, whereas the average cost 12 months previously was €799.
Visitors stayed a total of 2.9m nights in the country, a drop of 8%. The average length of stay was 6.5 nights.
The most frequent reason for travelling to Ireland was for holiday, cited by 36%. The second most frequent reason was to visit friends or relatives cited by 35%.