Where Tourists go in Ireland

[Stacky]

Revealed: The Irish counties most (and least) visited by overseas tourists
Where do tourists go?

Pol O Conghaile

PUBLISHED
11/10/2016

Compact Cork is a city for walkers.
Fáilte Ireland visitor figures provided to Independent.ie Travel give a fascinating insight into where tourists actually go.

The figures, based on rolling, three-year averages from Fáilte Ireland's Survey of Overseas Travellers, show that Dublin was Ireland's most-visited county in 2015.
No surprise there, given the capital's population, air and sea access.

But did you know Galway and Cork get more visitors than Kerry?
Or that Longford is Ireland's least-visited county, with a mere 30,000 overseas tourists spending just €8 million there last year?

Overseas visitors by county (2015)
Dublin: 4,938,000
Cork: 1,449,000
Galway: 1,354,000
Kerry: 1,026,000
Clare: 597,000
Limerick: 537,000
Mayo: 302,000
Donegal: 289,000
Kilkenny: 267,000
Waterford: 263,000
Wicklow: 248,000
Wexford: 221,000
Kildare: 214,000
Sligo: 186,000
Tipperary: 180,000
Cavan: 144,000
Meath: 134,000
Louth: 125,000
Westmeath: 116,000
Monaghan: 65,000
Carlow: 62,000
Laois & Leitrim: 57,000 each
Offally & Roscommon: 50,000 each
Longford: 30,000
Overseas tourist revenue earned by county:

Dublin: €1,726m
Cork: €558m
Galway: €475m
Kerry: €234m
Limerick: €212m
Clare: €127m
Kildare: €89m
Donegal: €83m
Wicklow: €82m
Mayo: €80m
Waterford: €75m
Tipperary: €66m
Wexford: €65m
Sligo: €51m
Cavan: €50m
Kilkenny: €45m
Meath: €44m
Louth & Westmeath: €36m each
Carlow: €32m
Monaghan: €25m
Roscommon: €20m
Laois: €18m
Leitrim: €15m
Offaly: €14m
Longford: €8m
It's interesting to note the discrepancy between visitor numbers and spend in two middle-ranking counties. Kildare is the 13th most visited, for instance, but the 7th highest-earner from overseas tourism, with €87 million last year.
Conversely, while Kilkenny ranked as Ireland's 9th most visited county in 2015, it was the 16th highest-earner, drawing just €45 million from overseas visitors.

NB: These figures do not take domestic tourism into account.

 

[johnmcork]

Kilkenny gets a lot of daytrip coach tours down from Dublin every day.
Would that account for high volume/low spend there?

 

[Top Dog]

The counties with no coastline get the least amount of tourists

 

[Tube a Pringles]

Surprising difference in revenue between Cork and Kerry. Probably the higher percentage of tight Americans on their business tours. And then you have Cork people up in arms about not having a transatlantic route. Other stats on board failtes website make interesting reading. Your average European spends far more per head in the country. It's the new Duesseldorf route we should be happy about.

I see today that Shannon managed to win a SAS flight. That's the market we should be trying to win.

 

[BBJ]

How do they work these figures out, I wonder?

 

[delzer]

Surprising difference in revenue between Cork and Kerry. Probably the higher percentage of tight Americans on their business tours. And then you have Cork people up in arms about not having a transatlantic route. Other stats on board failtes website make interesting reading. Your average European spends far more per head in the country. It's the new Duesseldorf route we should be happy about.

I see today that Shannon managed to win a SAS flight. That's the market we should be trying to win.

Shannon have autonomy from the DAA. Cork do not. They give us scraps down here. If Cork was able to offer the same deals as Shannon they would win a lot of business from Dublin.

 

[jeepers]

How do they work these figures out, I wonder?

As far as I can tell, Longford just needs a TY student with a clipboard.

 

[Imbas]

Interesting. Wonder how they calculate the figures. I'm assuming it would have to be visitor numbers at various tourist sites or though hotels/B&Bs given we don't have county borders.

 

[Ethelred]

Interesting. Wonder how they calculate the figures. I'm assuming it would have to be visitor numbers at various tourist sites or though hotels/B&Bs given we don't have county borders.

Hotels phone in numbers daily, as do most b&bs.

How much is spent is recorded on surveys.

 

[Pepe]

Galway not far behind Cork.