More Visitors, Shorter Stays, Less Spend: What the CSO's August 2026 Tourism Figures Mean for Irish Venues
by CWDH, 9 min reading time
CSO August 2026 inbound tourism: visitors up 2%, spend down 2% to €729m, stays shorter. What it means for Irish hotels, restaurants and pubs.
Ireland's inbound tourism figures for August 2026 tell a story every Irish operator should read twice: more visitors, shorter stays and less money spent. The CSO counted 788,700 foreign visitors in August, up 2% on August 2025, yet they stayed fewer nights and spent €729 million excluding fares, down 2% on last year and down 11% on August 2024. Average spend per visitor fell 4% to €924. For hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafés and B&Bs the message is that the footfall is there, but each guest is spending less time and less money, so the venues that win this winter will be the ones that earn more from every visit they already get.
Key takeaways
- August 2026: 788,700 foreign visitors (+2% on 2025), 6.6 million nights (−2%) and €729m spend excluding fares (−2% on 2025, −11% on 2024). Average stay 8.3 nights, average spend €924 per visitor.
- North America is 25% of visitors but 36% of spend; Great Britain is 36% of visitors but only 20% of spend. Continental Europe grew 9% and now matches North America on spend.
- Year to date, overnight visits are up 11% on 2025 at 4.7 million, so volume is recovering while value is not.
- Day-to-day spending (€372m) is now bigger than accommodation spending (€324m): food, drink and experiences are where the margin is.
- 39% of visitors stayed in hotels and 7% in guesthouses and B&Bs; the practical response is to raise spend per head through breakfast, bar, upsell and presentation rather than wait for longer stays.
What do the CSO inbound tourism figures for August 2026 actually show?
The Inbound Tourism release published by the Central Statistics Office on 29 September 2026 is the official count of overseas visitors completing trips to Ireland. For August it shows 788,700 visitors, up 2% on August 2025 and 3% on August 2024. They spent 6,559,000 nights in the country, down 2% on both comparison years, which brought the average stay down to 8.3 nights from 8.6 a year earlier.
The money is the part that matters for venues. Expenditure excluding fares was €729 million, down 2% on August 2025 and 11% below August 2024. Including fares, visitors spent €989 million. Mean spend per visitor excluding fares was €924, down 4%. Edward Duffy, Statistician in the CSO's Tourism and Travel Division, summarised it plainly: almost 789,000 foreign visitors completed Irish trips in August 2026, up 2% year-on-year and 3% versus 2024.
Of that €729 million, €372 million went on day-to-day spending and €324 million on accommodation, with the balance in prepayments. In other words, what visitors spend in restaurants, pubs, cafés and attractions once they are here is now the larger pot, and it is the pot an individual venue can actually influence.
Who is coming, and who is spending?
The market mix explains a lot of the gap between visitor growth and revenue decline. Great Britain supplied 283,200 visitors, 36% of the total, but only €148 million or 20% of spend, reflecting shorter trips and a high share of people visiting friends and relatives. Continental Europe supplied 34% of visitors and 36% of spend at €262 million, and was the fastest-growing market at +9%. North America supplied 25% of visitors but the same €262 million, 36% of spend, and that market fell 3% in August. The rest of the world, 5% of visitors, fell 6%.
So the highest-spending market shrank slightly while the lowest-spending market stayed large, and the average fell accordingly. Half of all visits (51%) were for holidays, 33% were to visit friends and relatives and 8% were business trips.
Where did they sleep? Hotels took 39% of visitors (309,700), 37% stayed with family or friends or in their own property, 8% in rented or self-catering accommodation and 7% in guesthouses and B&Bs (57,300). That 37% staying with family is a reminder that a large share of August visitors never see a hotel, but they do eat out, drink out and visit attractions with their hosts, and they are a core audience for pubs and restaurants outside Dublin.
Why are visitors spending less?
The CSO release does not give reasons, and we will not invent them, but the pattern in the figures themselves is clear. Stays are shorter, so there are fewer breakfasts, dinners and rounds per visitor. The market mix has tilted towards Britain and Europe and away from North America, and North American visitors spend more per head. And the comparison with 2024 is against a particularly strong year for spend.
The trend is not confined to August. The CSO's July release showed average stay falling to 7.6 nights from 7.9, and industry commentary through the summer has repeatedly noted that overall revenue has not yet moved past 2024 levels even as visitor numbers climb. Year to date, 4.7 million overnight visits is 11% ahead of 2025 but only 1% ahead of 2024.
What should an Irish venue do about shorter, cheaper visits?
If you cannot make the guest stay longer, make each visit worth more. That is a front-of-house job as much as a pricing job, and it is largely about presentation, pace and the offer being visible at the moment the guest is deciding.
Make breakfast earn its keep. For a hotel or B&B, breakfast is the one meal every resident guest attends. A generous, well-presented buffet with proper dispensers, warm holding and matched crockery lifts the review score and supports the room rate; a tired one does the opposite. If breakfast is currently an afterthought, the hotel breakfast service range and chafing dishes and buffet warmers are where to start.
Sell the second drink and the dessert. Day-to-day spending is the biggest pot, and it is made up of small decisions at the table. A specials board at the entrance, a wine card or dessert card on every table and a bill presenter that carries a message about tomorrow's lunch all move the average cheque without a word from staff. Securit's menu cover sets and chalkboards and menu displays are built for exactly this.
Look worth the money. A European visitor on a shorter trip is choosing between venues on the street and on their phone, often within an hour of eating. Matched porcelain, polished glassware and a dressed table photograph well and signal value before the food arrives. If your tableware is mixed after a long season, the fine dining tableware collections let you reorder the same families rather than near matches.
Give the family-stay visitor a reason to come in. More than a third of August visitors stayed with friends and relatives. They are local hosts' guests, and a visible terrace, a lit entrance after dark and a clear menu outside are what turn a walk past into a booking. Our Running Your Venue guides cover the practical set-up.
What does this mean for the winter ahead?
The volume recovery is real: 4.7 million overnight visits in eight months, 11% ahead of last year, and Continental Europe growing at 9%. Fáilte Ireland's 2026–2029 strategy is explicitly trying to push that demand into the shoulder and off-peak months, and the Government's Budget 2027 on 6 October will be watched closely by the trade for measures on costs. None of that changes the arithmetic in the CSO figures: the guest is arriving, but staying 8.3 nights rather than 8.6 and spending €924 against roughly €960 a year earlier.
The venues that come through the winter well will be the ones that treat every cover as a shorter window and plan the offer, the presentation and the upsell accordingly. That is a controllable response to an uncontrollable trend, and most of it can be put in place before the clocks go back.
Frequently asked questions
How many tourists visited Ireland in August 2026? The CSO recorded 788,700 foreign visitors completing trips in August 2026, up 2% on August 2025 and 3% on August 2024.
How much did visitors spend? €729 million excluding fares, down 2% on August 2025 and 11% on August 2024, or €989 million including fares. Average spend per visitor excluding fares was €924.
Which market spends the most in Ireland? In August 2026 North America and Continental Europe each accounted for €262 million, 36% of spend apiece, but North America did so with 25% of visitors against Europe's 34%, making North American visitors the highest spenders per head.
How long do visitors stay? The average stay in August 2026 was 8.3 nights, down from 8.6 nights in August 2025.
Where do visitors stay? 39% stayed in hotels, 37% with family or friends or in their own property, 8% in rented or self-catering accommodation and 7% in guesthouses and B&Bs.
How CWDH can help
CWDH supplies Irish hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafés and B&Bs with the front-of-house and tableware that lift spend per head: breakfast service and buffet display, fine dining tableware, Securit menus, chalkboards and displays and Nardi and Fermob terrace furniture, all in trade pack sizes with delivery across Ireland. Email us at info@cwdh.ie for a quote or a complete equipment list sized to your covers.
Sources: CSO: Inbound Tourism August 2026 · CSO: Inbound Tourism July 2026 · Travel Extra: Key takeaways from the CSO figures · Fáilte Ireland Corporate Strategy 2026–2029 · TheJournal.ie: Budget 2027
Photo: Melissa De Yoe / Unsplash. Other images: CWDH.
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