International tourism to Ireland boosted the country's tourism economy by nearly 5.3 million overseas visits and €4.6bn in visitor spend.
International tourism to Ireland boosted Ireland’s tourism economy by nearly 5.3 million overseas visits and €4.6bn in visitor spend to the country from January to September 2026, as Ireland consolidated its position in Europe’s travel market ahead of this week’s World Travel Market (WTM) London.
The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released on 29 October show that overseas visits increased 9% year-on-year from 2025 to 5.3m, while visitor spend was up 11% to €4.6bn in the same period; nonetheless, visiting numbers dropped 2% in September year-on-year, and contextualise the year-to-date figures.
Today’s stats coincide with Tourism Ireland’s official launch of its international trade event programme at WTM London, which takes place between 3 and 5 November at ExCeL London, while headwinds from rising aviation fuel prices and geopolitical turbulence continue to impact international connectivity.
The latest CSO figures establish a substantial increase in overseas tourism expenditure during the first nine months of 2026.
Ireland received approximately 5.3 million overnight overseas visitors between January and September, compared with 4.9 million during the same period in 2025. Their expenditure, excluding international fares, reached €4.6 billion, representing an 11% increase.
September’s figures, however, presented a more mixed picture. Ireland welcomed 590,700 overseas visitors during the month, down 2% year-on-year. Visitor expenditure reached €595 million, increasing by 4% compared with September 2025.
The average length of stay increased from 7.1 nights to 7.4 nights, while total overnight stays reached approximately 4.4 million.
The principal source markets during September were:
Great Britain remained Ireland’s largest overseas visitor market during the month. North America, meanwhile, accounted for €234 million, or 39%, of September’s overseas visitor expenditure.
Across January–September, spending increased by 17% from mainland Europe, 11% from Great Britain, 8% from North America and 3% from other international markets.
For Ireland’s hospitality industry, these figures are particularly relevant to accommodation providers, restaurants, transport operators and attractions. Tourism expenditure extends beyond hotel reservations, supporting visitor activities, local transport, dining and regional tourism businesses.
Tourism Ireland is preparing to showcase tourism businesses from across the island at World Travel Market London 2026, one of the industry’s major international business-to-business events.
The exhibition takes place from 3 to 5 November at ExCeL London, bringing together destination marketing organisations, tour operators, travel agents, airlines, accommodation providers and international tourism buyers.
Tourism Ireland’s programme provides participating industry partners with dedicated exhibition space and access to an online appointment system for arranging meetings with international buyers.
The platform is designed to facilitate commercial discussions, destination promotion and new distribution partnerships across overseas markets.
The island’s tourism offering includes several established international visitor destinations:
The event is particularly relevant to smaller tourism operators seeking international distribution partnerships. However, the claim that more than 80 local SMEs have already completed their commercial alignment profiles could not be independently verified. Tourism Ireland’s published WTM participation information confirms the trade programme, but does not establish that figure.
Rising aviation fuel costs and disruption linked to the Middle East conflict remain important considerations for Ireland’s international tourism outlook.
Tourism Ireland has specifically identified higher jet fuel prices, airfares and connectivity challenges among the factors influencing overseas travel demand during the remainder of 2026.
The European aviation market is exposed to changes in fuel availability and pricing because of its dependence on imported refined petroleum products. Disruption to Middle Eastern supply routes has increased costs for airlines and other transport operators.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also identified elevated fuel expenditure and geopolitical disruption as significant pressures on the global airline industry’s 2026 financial outlook.
For Ireland, transatlantic connectivity is particularly important because North American visitors represent a major source of overseas tourism expenditure. Dublin Airport serves as the country’s principal international gateway, while Shannon Airport provides additional transatlantic access.
Higher operating costs can influence airline pricing, route economics and capacity decisions. However, individual carriers have different fuel-hedging arrangements, aircraft requirements and network strategies. No independently verified evidence establishes a specific new widebody fuel-allocation policy or a uniform schedule adjustment by Irish airlines on 1 November.
The latest visitor statistics nevertheless demonstrate the importance of maintaining competitive international air connectivity as Ireland enters the final months of the year.
Dublin Airport has already completed a significant upgrade to its automated border-processing infrastructure, with 25 new and upgraded eGates introduced in May 2026.
The project was delivered through a contract awarded to Vision-Box, part of Amadeus, following a public procurement process managed by the Office of Government Procurement.
The upgraded infrastructure includes improved facial comparison technology, stronger impostor detection, a two-step verification process and ID-card reader functionality for eligible passengers from participating countries.
The facilities are intended to improve passenger processing while maintaining immigration and border security requirements.
In 2025, approximately 6.3 million passengers used Dublin Airport’s eGates, with the authorities expecting usage to increase during 2026.
The system does not provide unrestricted automated entry to every international traveller. Eligibility depends on nationality, age, travel documentation and the applicable border-control arrangements.
EU, EEA and Swiss passport holders aged over 18 are among the eligible users, while certain additional nationalities can use designated facilities in the transfer area.
For international visitors, the upgraded infrastructure forms part of Dublin’s wider airport capacity and passenger-processing requirements. It is important, however, to distinguish the May upgrade from any claim of a newly activated biometric border system on 1 November.
Business tourism, including conferences, incentivisation and exhibitions, remains an important part of Ireland’s overall international visitor economy, with Dublin attracting many events facilitated through conference hotels and venues and corporate transport infrastructure. The Convention Centre Dublin is one of Ireland’s most prominent conference and exhibition venues, offering a 2,000-seat auditorium, exhibition facilities and a variety of meeting rooms.
Regional destinations also offer conference and incentive travel through convention hotels, cultural and historic destinations and other specialist event spaces. Environmentally friendly considerations are playing an increasingly important role for the international events sector, covering issues such as energy efficiency, sourcing of food and other supplies, logistics planning for conference delegates, waste management and sustainability of the conference hotel supply chain.
The reported launch of a new Irish Meetings Industry Council digital waste-auditing tool and the certification of five major convention centres under a new ecological accreditation program could not be confirmed through further available official documentation; therefore, these developments should not be