There was a 10% drop in foreign visitors to Ireland in May compared to the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
560,000 tourists arrived in the State last month.
Compared to May last year, the numbers from Continental Europe were down 21%, visitors from the rest of the world were down 38%, and arrivals from Britain were down 9%.
In contrast visitors from North America were up 11%.
CSO Statistician Gregg Patrick said that the visitors’ expenditure in Ireland (excluding fares) was €477m in May.
“Visitors from Great Britian accounted for €99m (21%) of this spend, Continental Europe for €143m (30%), North America for €207m (43%), and visitors from the Rest of the World for €29m (6%),” he said.
“Taken together, this represented a fall of 21% compared with May 2024, and no change compared with May 2023,” he added.
The most frequent reason for the visitors journey was for holiday or leisure (43%), while their second most frequent reason was to visit friends or relatives (31%).
More of the visitors stayed in a hotel (47%) than in any other accommodation type, and the typical visit lasted 7.3 nights, the CSO said.
The Restaurants Association of Ireland said that it is “deeply concerned with the continuing decline in overseas tourists numbers to Ireland”.
“As we enter peak season, businesses are finding trading conditions challenging and margins eroded. The RAI is calling for a vat reduction to 9% for food service and a review of employers PRSI for labour intensive sectors like hospitality and retail,” the association said in a statement.
Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, the CEO of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, said the CSO data did not align with the sector’s own experience.
He said indications from coach tourism and attractions showed that this year was “flat” in comparison with 2024.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has expressed serious concerns about the latest CSO statistics for inbound tourism.
“The decline in tourism spend is part of an ongoing trend so far this year. Our primary fear is that, if this continues into the summer, it could have a very significant negative impact on our industry,” said IHF President Michael Magner.
“This would pose an enormous challenge for tourism businesses nationwide which are already struggling under unsustainable increases in operating costs across all aspects of their businesses.”
Mr Magner said that while there is still a disparity between the published figures and industry data on trips by overseas visitors, the May figures are now more in line with what businesses have been reporting on the ground, taking account of the contribution by domestic tourism.
