Irish Republic
Irish Republic
Travellers from the Irish Republic made 11.5 million outbound visits in 2024, with a total international tourism expenditure of US$12.7 billion.
In 2023, the UK welcomed 2.9 million visits from the Irish Republic. During the travellers’ visits, their total expenditure was a record £1.2 billion, with an average spend of £428 per person.
Visitor characteristics
- There are more than twice as many male than female business visitors from the Irish Republic.
- More than a third of visits were made by those aged under 35, followed by an almost equal share of visits from the cohorts of 35 to 44 and 45 to 54, respectively.
- The majority of visits are made by Irish nationals, but 14% of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) visitors are British nationals.
- 97% of departing visitors (excluding British nationals) are either ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to recommend a visit to Britain.
Popular activities for this market
Dining in a restaurant.
Visiting a pub.
Going shopping.
For further information on activities and experiences for this market, please click here.
Explore the inbound data in full
Use our visualisations to see data from this market in greater depth and clarity. Compare annual statistics, and filter by age group, gender, trip duration and more. Includes seasonality, trip purpose and regional spread of visitors to UK destinations. This data is based on the International Passenger Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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Global context
Top-level statistics relating to tourism expenditure and popular destinations for this market. For greater detail on inbound tourism flows from this market to the UK, see our data visualisations.
| Measure | 2024 |
| International tourism expenditure (US$bn) | 12.7 |
| Global rank for international tourism expenditure | 30 |
| Number of outbound visits (m) | 11.5 |
| Most visited destination | United Kingdom |
Access to Britain from the Irish Republic
The key routes and transport modes that connect this market with the UK.
| Measure | 2024 |
| Weekly aircraft departures | 968 |
| Weekly seat capacity | 152,038 |
| Airports with direct routes in Irish Republic | 6 |
| Airports with direct routes in Britain | 23 |
- The majority of visits from Ireland to Britain arrived by plane, 10% came via sea (IPS 2023).
- 51% of seat capacity on direct flights to the UK are to London airports.
- Following the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled flight seat capacity on non-stop flights from Ireland to the UK was 96% of pre-pandemic levels.
- Ferries sail from two ports in Ireland (Rosslare and Dublin) to three ports in Wales (Fishguard, Pembroke and Holyhead). There are 43 weekly sailings from Dublin to Holyhead which are operated by Irish Ferries & Stena Line, though the timetable often increases during the high season.
To see entry requirements for visitors to the UK from Ireland click here.
To see rates for Air Passenger Duty charged on passengers flying to Ireland from the UK click here.
Further resources
Where visitors from Ireland to the UK reside in their own country.xlsx
Where visitors from Ireland to the UK reside in their own country
How we source this information
We work with a number of data sources to provide a rich and insightful picture of our key inbound source markets. This includes, but is not limited to, data provided by Oxford Economics, the UNWTO, Apex, Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and from our own surveys and ad-hoc research. The largest share of the data come from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) by the ONS.
Visit our About the International Passenger Survey page for more information on how the data is collected and analysed.
