The number of foreign visitors to Ireland in June was down 2% on the same time last year.
New data from the Central Statistics Office shows that 654,000 tourists arrived in the country last month – an increase of 6% in comparison with June 2023.
The 2% decline last month is in contrast with more significant falls in visitor numbers between January and May, compared with the same months last year.
A fall of 25% was recorded in January, followed by a 30% drop in February, a 15% reduction in March, with the numbers in May down 10%.
Compared with the same month last year, the CSO says the number of tourists from Great Britain visiting Ireland in June fell by 1%.
Visitors from Continental Europe were down by 6%, with the numbers from the Rest of the World falling by 20%.
However, the level of tourists from North America to Ireland was up by 5%.
The CSO says the visitors in June spent €647m during their trips, which is down 6% compared with the same month last year, but up 8% on June 2023.
The data is based on a CSO Passenger Survey collected from abouty 13,000 departing passengers per month at ports and airports by CSO Tourist Enumerator staff.
The average length of stay by the visitors last month was 7.9 nights, up from an average of 7.3 nights in both June 2024 and June 2023.
The greatest number of tourists came from Great Britain (34%), followed by Continental Europe (31%), North America (30%) and the Rest of the World (5%).
Statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division of the CSO, Gregg Patrick, said the number of nights spent by foreign visitors in June was “almost 5.2 million, an increase of 6% compared with June 2024 and up 14% compared with 2023.”
He said the most frequent reason for the visitors’ trips was for holiday or leisure (47%), while almost one in three trips (30%) were to visit friends or relatives.
Mr Patrick said the expenditure by the visitors, excluding fares, was €647m.
“Visitors from Great Britian accounted for €118m (18%) of this spend, Continental Europe for €200m (31%), North America for €283m (44%), and visitors from the Rest of the World for €47m (7%),” he added.
Hoteliers say they have “serious concerns” about the drop in expenditure by overseas visitors, following what they describe as “an already weak performance year to date.”
The CSO data shows spending by tourists was down 6% last month, compared to the same time last year, but it was up by 8% on June 2024.
The Chief Executive of the Irish Hotels Federation said while industry data indicates that hotel occupancy rates are on a par with last year, “we are seeing a softening in revenue and room prices.”
Paul Gallagher said it appears to be “part of a wider decline in tourism spend so far this year as indicated by recent CSO figures.”
He warned that if the weakness continues throughout the summer, “it would pose a very significant challenge for tourism businesses nationwide that are already struggling under unsustainable increases in operating costs.”
“This is at a time when we are experiencing difficult headwinds on a number of other fronts, including economic challenges across our key source markets, increased political uncertainty internationally and the fallout from EU/US tariffs, all of which threaten Irish tourism,” he added.
