Tourism Ireland’s latest research, conducted in partnership with RED C, explores what motivates prospective visitors from countries like the US, Germany, and France to choose Ireland for their holidays, with findings to be shared at a virtual event for tourism operators.
Key motivators include exploration (81pc seek to discover landscapes and culture) and the desire to disconnect and unwind (71pc), indicating that Ireland appeals as a destination for relaxation and adventure.
The research shows a notable increase in interest in visiting Ireland, rising from 67pc in 2023 to 75pc in 2024, with beautiful landscapes and scenery being the main attraction, particularly for European respondents.
Factors influencing travel decisions include recommendations, online discovery (64pc of previous visitors share experiences online), and a sense of ‘newness,’ while concerns about competition from other destinations and weather play a role for some potential visitors.
Commenting on the results, Tourism Ireland CEO Alice Mansergh said: “We surveyed broadly across markets, and there were some really interesting themes. What we are seeing is that consumers overseas are worried about the cost of living generally, and they’re thinking about how expensive a holiday will be. But their concerns with Ireland haven’t risen. It is a reminder that costs have gone up across a number of destinations. The real positive here is that concerns around expense or safety have not changed over the past year or so. So we’ve seen those as pretty stable.”
The single biggest reason why people want to come to Ireland is our scenery and our landscapes, if you think of those wild Atlantic waves, the coastlines, the greenery, and even some of our cityscapes, of course, as well. Scenery tops the list across markets. Then there’s also an interest in our culture and people and our history and heritage. Those are more important in markets like US and Canada, may be less important in markets like Germany and France. So it’s interesting to understand the nuance and the tastes across countries also.
Scenery comes out as the top motivator across all markets, but it’s even more important in Germany and France, whereas there’s a little bit more interest in our history, for example, showing up for places like US and Canada, where perhaps we have those diaspora links and people are intrigued to learn more.
As much as we want to know why people want to come to us, we also “wanted to understand what would stop people from coming to us. The biggest reason why people don’t come to Ireland is simply competition. There are other places that people would like to go. If you’re somebody overseas planning your holiday, you can frankly decide to go to anywhere from the Maldives to Thailand, to Scotland or Iceland or wherever. So it’s a reminder that we’re one destination among many.
If you think about comparable destinations, we often think Northern European places like, say, Scotland, Iceland, Norway and so on. Ultimately, a visitor could choose anywhere. So the fact that 75pc of respondents say they’re interested in coming to Ireland sometime in the future is really positive. And of those 25pc who aren’t interested, for some of them, they’re just more interested in going somewhere else first. Weather does show up for 12pc. And then expense comes up for about 6pc of people. For absence of warm welcome, about 3pc.
What’s interesting there is in your desk research, those are people who’ve already been to Ireland. And so our survey that we’re talking about today is of potential visitors who haven’t yet come.
Recommendations from family and friends is the top way that people are influenced. Those recommendations often happen on social media now.
Culture could be anything from warm and welcoming people to Irish dancing or pub culture. It’s any of those elements of interacting with people in Ireland that are attracting people to come. From our own social media, for example, we see that elements like traditional music, Irish dancing still get a huge response whenever we play to those strengths.
With distilling, for example, and this year is 700 years since the first written reference to distilling. And the Red Book of Ossory, where that reference happens, is on show in St. Canice’s Cathedral. So that’s an example of a cultural moment that we might want to talk about. It’s this book with the 700 year old reference, but it’s really not about getting drunk. It’s about the whole culture and history that goes around it.
Typically in our advertising overseas, we’re not averse to featuring alcohol, but we would agree with you that it shouldn’t be the main feature. And again, when you talk to visitors, often they might want an experience like a distillery experience or a brewery experience, but it’s as part of a balanced holiday. Often the idea of the traditional Irish pub isn’t about getting drunk for a visitor. It’s about experiencing a sense of community, again, that warmth. If you’re lucky, that you come across a traditional music session. Those elements of pub culture, I think, remain relevant and really we don’t try and market Ireland as a drink destination.
From CSO stats at the moment, if we look at the performance of the season, what we’re seeing is revenue is up from overseas. Overseas visitors have spent over €4bn in Ireland. But yet you will hear from industry that it’s been a mixed season for them. That is because overnight stays or bed nights are down by about 2pc. So what we’re seeing is that the spend is coming in, but because people are spending on average seven nights rather than 8 nights on their holiday in Ireland this year versus last year, they may not be traveling around to all of the spots that they could be traveling around to. And so I think the focus for the future is really on dispersion of visitors and making sure that people are getting out to all the different regions and the hidden gems. Given that we know scenery and landscape are so important, again, you don’t want people to be congregated in just two or three spots. You really want to help people discover all there is and that sense of exploration.
