The number of foreign visitors who travelled to Ireland in March this year were down 15 percent on March 2024, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
According to the CSO, some 441,200 foreign visitors completed a trip to Ireland in March, a decrease that continues the downward year-on-year trend in foreign visitor numbers first observed in September last year.
Figures from the CSO last month revealed a 30 percent fall in foreign visitors to Ireland in February this year compared to 2024.
Commenting on the release, statistician in the CSO’s Tourism and Travel Division, Gregg Patrick said that in the first quarter of 2025, foreign visitors were down 23 percent compared with the same three months last year, and down 7 percent compared with the Q1 2023.
The highest proportion of visitors was from Britain (39.9 percent), accounting for 176,100 of the visitors in total, which was followed by the United States (18.8 percent), or 82,900 visitors.
The third highest proportion (7.2 percent) came from France, comprising a further 31,800 visitors.
By way of comparison, in March 2024 there were 199,500 visitors from Great Britain, 101,400 from the United States, and 28,700 from France.
“The visitors’ expenditure in Ireland (excluding fares) was €326 million. Visitors from Great Britian accounted for €81 million (25%), Continental Europe accounted for €122 million (37%), North America for €102 million (31%), and visitors from the Rest of the World for €21 million (6%). Taken together, this represented a decrease of 22% compared with March 2024, and an increase of 1% compared to March 2023,” Mr Patrick said.
“The visitors most frequent reason for their journey was for holiday or leisure (36%). Their second most frequent reason was to visit friends or relatives (35%). More of the visitors stayed in a hotel (43%) than in any other accommodation type, and the typical visit lasted 6.5 nights.”