Irish Republic

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) was suspended on 16 March 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic until the start of 2021. The ONS have made every effort to produce high-quality estimates for the periods when IPS data is not being collected but have not been able to produce a full set of results. See the 2020 inbound page for more information.

The 2021 data is ‘incomplete’ as Eurotunnel data was unavailable for the entire year. In addition, interviewing at Dover restarted from Q3 2021 and pseudo records for the Irish land border were also removed in 2021. More info can be found on the 2021 inbound page.

For 2022, Eurotunnel data was also unavailable for the first half of the year. Interviewing at Eurostar was not affected by Covid-19 restrictions in 2021 or the first half of 2022. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022. The latest data can be found on the monthly and quarterly pages.

Due to the above, the latest full year IPS data below is from 2019.

Visitor characteristics

There are more than twice as many male than female business visitors
About a third of Irish visits were made by those aged under 35, followed by the cohorts of 35-44 and 45-54
The majority of Irish visits are made by Irish nationals, but 17% of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) visitors are British nationals
97% of departing visitors (excluding British nationals) are either 'likely' or 'extremely likely' to recommend a visit to Britain

Dining in a restaurant

Visited a Pub

Went Shopping

Global context


Measure	2019
International tourism expenditure (US$bn)	8.3
Global rank for international tourism expenditure	39
Number of outbound visits (m)	10.4
Most visited destination	United Kingdom

Key demographic and economic data


Measure	2022
Population (m)	5.1
GDP per capita PPP (US$)	128,196
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)	8.4
Annual GDP growth (%)	7.8

Irish Republic COVID-19 Travel Sentiment (PDF, 482KB, Published April 2022)

Read about the preferences of Europeans towards tourism. Published March 2015

Find out where visitors from Irish Republic to the UK reside in their own country (Excel, 176KB, Published 2018)

Exchange rate

1 GBP = 1.1333 EUR

As of 22 March 2023

Retrieved from the Bank of England

Inbound visits to Britain from Irish Republic

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Drag to change year on charts and tables.

Touch the data points to see the values.

OVERVIEW OF UK VISITOR STATISTICS {{activeYear.name}}

Number of visits

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Total expenditure (GBP)

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Total nights spent

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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Chart
Table

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	Visits	% total	Visits	% total
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	Visits	% total	Nights	% total	Visits	% total	Nights	% total
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	Visits	% total	Visits	% total
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Access to Britain from Irish Republic


Measure	2022
Weekly aircraft departures	817
Weekly seat capacity	133,655
Airports with direct routes in Irish Republic	5
Airports with direct routes in Britain	25
Weekly ferry crossings	43

The majority of visits from Ireland to Britain arrive by plane
In 2022, there were 817 direct flight departures to Britain a week, with a total seat capacity of 133,655 a week
5 airports in the Irish Republic served 25 British airports in 2019
Following the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled flight seat capacity from Ireland to the UK recovered to 85% of 2019 levels
The current rate of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for the Irish Republic is £13

Markets

Irish Republic