CSO reports 654,500 visitors to Ireland in June as US tourism rebound continues

Overall numbers down 2% compared to June 2024 but key US market up 5%

Wed, 30 Jul, 2025 - 11:36

Martin Claffey

Visitor numbers to Ireland slipped by 2% last month compared to June 2024 but a recovery in the North American market has continued, with tourist numbers up 5%.

The Central Statistics Office Inbound Tourism statistics for June 2025 show that 654,500 foreign visitors departed Ireland on overseas routes in June 2025, down 2% compared with June 2024 and up by 6% compared with June 2023.

The number of nights spent by foreign visitors in June was almost 5.2m nights, an increase of 6% compared with June 2024 and up 14% compared with 2023.

In June 2025, the greatest number of visitors came from Great Britain (34%), followed by Continental Europe (31%), North America (30%) and the Rest of the World (5%). "When compared with June 2024, visitors from Great Britain fell by 1%, visitors from Continental Europe decreased by 6%, and visitors from the Rest of the World declined by 20%. In contrast, visitors from North America were up 5%," said CSO statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, Gregg Patrick.

Visitor numbers from North America had declined by as much as 18% in March. The chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation Eoghan O'Mara Walsh said the continued resurgence of this sector reported by the CSO is "encouraging", particularly with UK and European numbers flat.

"After a first quarter of the year of double digit decline, it's now much more stable. North America was a star performer," said Mr O'Mara Walsh, who noted visitors from the North American market are often high spenders. "They tour the regions and have been buoying Irish tourism over the summer months. Hopefully the upward trajectory will continue into July and August."

The visitors' expenditure in Ireland (excluding fares) was €647m in June 2025. Visitors from Great Britian accounted for €118m (18%) of this spend, Continental Europe for €200m (31%), North America for €283m (44%), and visitors from the Rest of the World for €47m (7%). Taken together, this represented a fall of 6% compared with June 2024, and a rise of 8% compared with June 2023.

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) expressed serious concerns about the overall drop in expenditure following an already weak performance year to date.

“While our own industry data indicates that occupancy rates for hotels are on a par with last year, we are seeing a softening in revenue and room prices. This appears to be part of a wider decline in tourism spend so far this year as indicated by recent CSO figures," said IHF chief executive Paul Gallagher.

“If this weakness continues throughout the summer, it would pose a very significant challenge for tourism businesses nationwide that are already struggling under unsustainable increases in operating costs. This is at a time when we are experiencing difficult headwinds on a number of other fronts, including economic challenges across our key source markets, increased political uncertainty internationally and the fallout from EU/US tariffs – all of which threaten Irish tourism.”

The most frequent reason for the visitors' trips was for holiday or leisure (47%), while almost one in three trips (30%) were to visit friends or relatives.

The CSO data is based on the CSO Passenger Survey collected from approximately 13,000 departing passengers per month at the country’s international ports and airports.