US visitor numbers fell 40% in February, says CSO

The number of visitors from the USA - Ireland's second largest visitor market, after Britain - was 31,200 visitors during the month, compared to 46,600 US tourists in 2024. The figures will be watched with interest in the wake of Donald Trump's election as US president, though Fáilte Ireland have previously stressed they envisage no effect on tourism numbers related directly to the change of administration.

Nevertheless, the CSO statistics are being viewed with serious interest by the industry. The chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC), Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, said the figures were "surprising" and that they would be keen to see how the CSO data is compiled.  "January and February have certainly been 'soft' enough but the extent of the CSO numbers seems much more severe than we have seen on the ground, in terms of things like hotels and visitor attractions," said Mr O'Mara Walsh.

Mr O'Mara Walsh also noted the ongoing negativity surrounding the visitor cap at Dublin airport. 

The largest contingent of visitors to Ireland in February came from Britain (49%), with 150,400 visitors, down 24% on the equivalent month in 2024. Ireland's third visitor market in February was Germany with visitor numbers falling 18% from 21,900 to 17,800.

The overall figure for February 2025 visitor numbers shows a continuing decline experienced since last autumn, according to statistician in the CSO tourism and travel division Gregg Patrick. "The decrease represents an acceleration of the downward year-on-year trend in foreign visitor numbers that first emerged in September 2024," Mr Patrick said. 

"The visitors' expenditure in Ireland (excluding fares) was €196m, a decrease of 31% compared with February 2024. However, the mean expenditure per visitor decreased by just 1.8% to €643."

While the slow start to the tourism year highlighted by the CSO is a cause for concern, the industry will be most keen to learn visitor numbers for March 2025, which is traditionally seen as when the season kicks into gear, as it contains visitor numbers for St Patrick's holiday festivities. 

In February 2025, the most frequent reason for travelling to Ireland was to visit family or friends (37%). The visitors stayed a total of 1.8m nights in the country, a drop of 33% when compared with February 2024.

The average length of stay for foreign resident overnight visitors was 5.9 nights, down from an average of 6.2 nights in February 2024.