Overseas visitors to Cork surged 25% in 2014

Overseas visitor numbers to Cork jumped by over 25% in 2014 — one of the largest increases of any region in the country.

The growth in revenue from foreign tourists in 2014 was even more impressive — up 27% to €550m.

Figures published by Fáilte Ireland provide a breakdown on a county basis of the most popular destinations for both domestic and foreign tourists in 2014.

Cork was the second most popular destination in the Republic for overseas visitors after Dublin.

A total of 1,542,000 foreign tourists, more than a fifth of the 7.6m visitors to Ireland in 2014, visited Cork during their stay.

Tourists from the UK remain the key market for the sector in Cork, accounting for 39% or 609,000 of all overseas visitors with 539,000, or 35% from mainland Europe.

Dublin still dominates our tourism industry, with almost 4.2m (54%) of all overseas visitors in 2014 spending some time in the capital.

However, overall revenue from foreign tourists in Dublin declined by almost 2% in 2014 to just under €1.4bn, despite a 3% increase in actual visitor numbers.

Several other counties also suffered falls in tourist revenue notwithstanding rising visitor numbers, including Wexford where spending by overseas tourists was down 10%.

A Fáilte Ireland spokesperson said the likely explanation was shorter average holidays. “Revenue is driven by length of stay which did drop marginally in Dublin in 2014 as well as the East and Midlands region.”

Galway was the third most popular destination visited by 1,235,000 foreign tourists, followed by Kerry with 1,040,000.

Longford was the least popular destination for overseas tourists, visited by just 22,000 or 0.3% of the total.

All counties with the exception of Carlow, Louth, Meath, and Monaghan, recorded an increase in overseas visitors during 2014.

In terms of domestic tourists, 805,000 visitors stayed in Cork in 2014, an annual increase of almost 9% and the highest number since 2011.

Revenue from domestic tourists to Cork also rose by almost 18% to €154m.

Overall the number of Irish people holidaying at home rose 3.4% in 2014, up 243,000 to 7.35m. Associated revenue rose 6.6% to €1.46bn.

Fáilte Ireland said figures showed both visits and revenue from overseas and domestic tourists had recorded further increases in 2015.