Tourist accommodation nights in Ireland rose 14.6% year on year in the first half of 2026, against EU growth of 1.7%, according to Eurostat. Ireland had the highest increase among the EU countries listed. Across the bloc, establishments recorded 1.321 billion nights.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimates that 676,300 foreign-resident overnight visitors completed visits to Ireland in July 2026, up 5% on July 2025. Its passenger survey covers visitors departing through Irish ports and airports, excluding Northern Ireland residents and anyone leaving through Northern Ireland ports or airports. The different periods and coverage mean July’s visitor-night figures are not a like-for-like continuation of Eurostat’s first-half accommodation series.
Those visitors’ estimated trip expenditure, excluding fares, rose 9% to €680.6 million. Average spending on the same basis was €1,006 per visitor, up 4%. Total expenditure therefore rose through a combination of more visitors and higher spending per visit. These estimates measure spending across trips, not revenue for any one hospitality sector.
Visitor nights grew more slowly than visitor numbers: those July visitors spent an estimated 5.17 million nights in Ireland, up 2% year on year. Average nights per visitor were therefore roughly 3% lower, based on the rounded growth rates.
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