- Dublin adds 1m extra visitors in just two years
- Cork and Kerry show decline
- Dublin neighbouring coutnies all show big increases
Longford and Offaly are the fastest growing county by visitor numbers according to Failte Ireland 2015 regional statistics, albeit from some of the lowest visitor numbers bases on the island.
Clare is also growing rapidly having added 112,000 extra visitors in 2015.
The headine act of Irish tourism, Dublin continues to race ahead of the rest of the country, having gained a million extra visitors in just two years, growing by 20pc to just short of 5m visitors in 2015, up from 4.119,000 in 2014 and 3,998,000 in 2013.
Other big gains are by Westmeath (20.8pc), Wicklow (17pc), Kildare (16.9pc), Mayo (16.6pc), Meath (16.5pc) and Donegal (14.7pc). Cork, down 6pc, Wexford down 7.9pc, Tipperary down 5.3pc, Carlow, Louth (both down 1.6pc) and Kerry, down 1.3pc, all saw declines.
Joe Dolan President of the Irish Hotels Federation recently stressed that the problem of regionality and seasonality is growing for Irish tourism, as the honeypot destinations enjoy a greater concentration of tourist numbers and visitor spend. There is an inequitable distribution of tourism visitors and spend around the country, 80pc of the tourism revenue is generated in just five counties, Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Galway. A lot of tourism industries are doing 80pc of their business sin 20pc of the year.
- Watch here interview with Joe Dolan.
Tourist numbers by county 2015
2014 2015 %Change
- Dublin 4,119k 4,938k 19.9
- Cork 1,542k 1,449k -6.0
- Galway 1,235k 1,354k 9.6
- Kerry 1,040k 1,026k -1.3
- Clare 485k 597k 23.1
- Limerick 494k 537k 8.7
- Mayo 259k 302k 16.6
- Donegal 252k 289k 14.7
- Kilkenny 249k 267k 7.2
- Waterford 255k 263k 3.1
- Wicklow 212k 248k 17.0
- Wexford 240k 221k -7.9
- Kildare 183k 214k 16.9
- Sligo 159k 186k 17.0
- Tipperary 190k 180k -5.3
- Cavan 126k 144k 14.3
- Meath 115k 134k 16.5
- Louth 127k 125k -1.6
- Westmeath 96k 116k 20.8
- Monaghan 57k 65k 14.0
- Carlow 63k 62k -1.6
- Laois 53k 57k 7.5
- Leitrim 51k 57 11.8
- Offaly 38k 50k 31.6
- Roscommon 44k 50k 13.6
- Longford 22k 30k 36.4
Visitor spend
- 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: €36m
- Westmeath: €36m
- Carlow: €32m
- Monaghan: €25m
- Roscommon: €20m
- Laois: €18m
- Leitrim: €15m
- Offaly: €14m
- Longford: €8m
