Jazz Festival helps Cork to strongest hospitality spend of year

On October 25, in-store pub spend was more than six times Cork’s daily average

Boney M featuring Maizie Williams performing at the Cork Opera House as part of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Card spending at this year's festival helped the city to the two strongest days of the year so far for restaurants and pubs, new data published on Thursday shows. Picture: Darragh Kane

Spending at this year's Guinness Cork Jazz Festival helped the city to the two strongest days of the year so far for in-store restaurant and pub spending, new data published on Thursday shows.

On October 25th, the highest-spending day, in-store pub spend was more than six times Cork’s daily average for January to October 2026, while restaurant spend was more than double the average, according to the AIB Spend Trend. The spend trend compiles data from 76.5m card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online in Ireland.