The Irish Hotels Federation has said that hoteliers experiences are ‘out of kilter’ with official figures after Irish inbound visitor numbers showed a decline for the third moth in succession, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Overall figures were 15.4pc down on 2024 and 43.8pc down on pre-pandemic.
This follows declines of 25pc in January and 29pc in February The number of visitors to the island typically increases by around 30pc in march with Saint Patrick’s day and the opening of the summer aviation season.
The average length of stay has fallen by half a day since March 20924. Visitors now spend an average of six and a half days in ireland. Average visitor spend per head has also declined from €558.60 to €447.80, with USA visitors spending above average
The CSO has changed its methodology and there are questions about the accuracy of recent statistics, especially as airport figures show passenger numbers are flat.
All but one of the major markets are down. Britain was down 11.7pc on 2024 and 39.2pc down on pre-pandemic, USA was down 18.2pc on 2024 and the figure including Canada almost exactly half the pre pandemic figure from March 2019, when the countries were not measured separately. Germany was down 20.6pc on 2024 and down 52.2pc on pre pandemic. France was up 10.8pc largely because of a rugby six nations fixture and down 37.4pc on pre-pandemic. Spain was down by a lesser margin than other markets, 10.1pc.
Overall, Europe was 14.2pc down on 2024 and 45.6pc on pre-pandemic. Australia and New Zealand was down 11.5pc on 2024 and 39.5pc on pre-pandemic.
The proportion of inbound to outbound passengers in the statistics indicate that the inbound figure may have been overstated using the pre-pandemic methodology.
Paul Gallagher of the Irish Hotels Federation commented: The published figures for overseas visitors continue to be out of kilter with industry data on the ground, including figures from hotels which are reporting a strong performance for room bookings year to date.
“The latest industry figures show that hotels achieved average room occupancies in March on a par with the same month last year while bookings for the first quarter were up 2pc year on year. From an industry perspective, this would suggest that overall tourism activity is holding up so far in 2025, which is at odds with what the CSO figures would appear to be indicating.”
“This is a concern given how vital it is to have as complete a picture as possible for how tourism, our largest indigenous industry, is performing. Along with industry partners, we have met with representatives of the CSO to explore the figures in the context of wider industry data, and we look forward to further engagement on this matter. In a given year, the first quarter would typically account for approximately 20pc of overseas visitors to Ireland and a corresponding proportion of total hotel stays – made up of both domestic and overseas guests.
“While industry figures show a positive start to the year, we are beginning to see a slight softening in the market with forward bookings currently down 2pc out to August. We are hopeful that this will pick up into the summer.
“We are, however, very alert to various headwinds facing our sector, including the impact of global political and economic uncertainty which we continue to monitor closely. This is in the broader context of a very high-cost base within the Irish economy, restrictions at Dublin Airport, falling consumer sentiment and financial pressures in key source markets – all of which are weighing on our sector and the wider tourism industry.”
