Domestic tourism boon for Cork as it trumps Kerry in takings

Sunshine at Barleycove Beach in West Cork. Around €167m came into Cork, with visitors taking a break in the Kingdom falling by 46% to €162m, according to a new report published by Fáilte Ireland. Picture: Dan Linehan

Cork overtook Kerry last year as the most prosperous region for domestic tourism.

Around €167m came into Cork, with visitors taking a break in the Kingdom falling by 46% to €162m, according to a new report published by Fáilte Ireland.

Cork’s relative success was driven by a more modest reduction in the number of bed nights spent by domestic holidaymakers compared to most of the other main tourist regions.

The number of bed nights spent in Cork last year was only down 26% compared to 2019 — compared to the national average of 39%.

In contrast, the number of bed nights spent in both Kerry and Dublin last year by domestic tourists was down by 46%.

Kilkenny suffered a bigger downturn in domestic tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic than any other part of the country.

Kilkenny suffers

The Fáilte Ireland report shows Kilkenny recorded a 76% drop in trips by Irish holidaymakers between 2019 and last year.

The number of people taking a holiday in the city and county in 2021 fell to 93,000 compared to the last full tourism year before the pandemic in 2019 when 387,000 native tourists took a break in Kilkenny.

It was the 11th most popular destination in Ireland in 2019 but slumped to 20th position last year with only fewer breaks being taken in Laois/Offaly.

Spending by Irish tourists to Kilkenny also dropped by 67% to €16m last year – down from €48m in 2019.

The figures are based on a combination of the household travel survey by the Central Statistics Office and estimates on spending by Fáilte Ireland.

Other areas which experienced a reduction of around 60% in terms of trips and expenditure by domestic tourists since the pandemic include Tipperary, Cavan/Leitrim, Louth/Monaghan and Meath.

Domestic trips down 51%

Overall, the number of domestic holiday trips in 2021 was down 51% to almost 5.7 million with associated spending down 40% to around €1.3bn.

The Fáilte Ireland figures show the number of domestic holiday trips to Dublin was down 56% last year to 783,000 compared to almost 1.8 million trips in 2019.

Spending by domestic holidaymakers in the capital in 2021 was down 47% to €157m.

While Dublin recorded the greatest number of trips by domestic visitors in both 2019 and 2021, tourism revenue from Irish holidaymakers is only the third highest after Cork and Kerry due to people taking shorter breaks in Dublin than other popular tourist regions.

Donegal delight

Only one county — Donegal — experienced an increase in tourism revenue from Irish holidaymakers last year.

The figures show spending was up 6% to €103m, despite the fact that the overall number of people taking a domestic break in Donegal was down 35% to 290,000.

The strong performance was largely driven by the fact that domestic tourists stayed an average of two extra days in Donegal for their holiday last year compared to 2019.

The Fáilte Ireland report shows the average length of a holiday in Donegal in 2021 was 5 days compared to 3.1 days before the pandemic.

Average length of stays also increased by over 1 day in both Clare and Wicklow last year.

Meath was the only county during 2021where the average stay for a domestic break was shorter than in 2019.

On average, holidaymakers to Meath spent only 1.5 days on a break in 2021 compared to 1.8 days before the pandemic.