Irish spending in US drops 18% as UK overtakes Spain for top travel spend

New AIB data shows Irish spending in the US fell 18% in August, while the UK overtook Spain as the top destination

'August is typically a month where people are on holidays and it’s interesting to see spend by Irish visitors to the US has decreased significantly.'

AIB said it has seen a clear trend in the number of its customers visiting the US.

Card spending data amongst the bank's customers for August shows spending in the US fell significantly, down 18% on the same month last year and down 11.5% so far this year.

Conversely, AIB customers had the highest ever number of transactions in the UK last month.

There were 1.4m card transactions by Irish visitors in Britain in August, an increase of 11% year on year. It overtook Spain as the top destination for spending by Irish visitors. While the value of spending by Irish visitors to Britain was 8% higher than the previous August, there was no change in the value of spending in Spain year-on-year.

"August is typically a month where people are on holidays and it’s interesting to see spend by Irish visitors to the US has decreased significantly," said Adrian Moynihan, Head of Consumer at AIB. "And there is movement in the top two destinations abroad for AIB customers, with the UK topping the list, as evidence of Ireland’s close travel links with the UK."

Separately, AIB data shows spending on groceries increased 4% in August year on year. The biggest increase in spend on groceries was in counties Roscommon (+7.4%), Offaly and Louth (6.6%) and the smallest increase was in Clare (+1.4%), Longford (+1.6%) and Wicklow (+2.0%). Some 57% of grocery purchases were by women, 93% were in store and just 7% were online.

Spending also increased in restaurants and takeaways by 8%, with 83% of this on premises and 17% via delivery apps or online.