.
Attractions like Skellig Michael made Kerry the fourth most visited county in 2017. Photo: Arian Zwegers/Flickr
KERRY was the fourth most visited county last year by both overseas and domestic tourists according to new information from Fáilte Ireland.
In total, €542m was spent in Kerry by overseas and domestic tourists according to the data which charts visitor numbers and revenue by region and county in 2017.
Dublin attracted the most overseas visitors and tourist spend, followed by Galway, Cork and Kerry, while domestically Dublin was also on top followed by Cork, Galway and then Kerry.
Continued below…
.
Longford is Ireland’s least-visited county by both overseas and domestic tourists. Nine million overseas tourists came to Ireland in 2017 spending €4.9 billion. Irish residents took 9.6m trips, spending €1.9 billion.
Here’s Overseas visitors and spend by county (2017)
Dublin: 5,936,000 (€1981m)
Galway: 1,673,000 (€589m)
Cork: 1,600,000 (€631m)
Kerry: 1,277,000 (€337m)
Clare: 749,000 (€158m)
Limerick: 647,000 (€261m)
Mayo: 324,000 (€78m)
Kilkenny: 315,000 (€55m)
Wicklow: 275,000 (€73m)
Donegal: 255,000 (€82m)
Waterford: 255,000 (€69m)
Wexford: 232,000 (€61m)
Kildare: 211,000 (€91m)
Tipperary (N&S): 192,000 (€88m)
Sligo: 173,000 (€45m)
Louth: 172,000 (€55m)
Meath: 162,000 (€44m)
Cavan: 107,000 (€48m)
Westmeath: 103,000 (€46m)
Carlow: 79,000 (€45m)
Monaghan: 60,000 (€25m)
Roscommon: 54,000 (€27m)
Offaly: 52,000 (€16m)
Laois: 43,000 (€14m)
Leitrim: 41,000 (€18m)
Longford: 24,000 (€10m)
Domestic visitors and spend by county
Dublin: 1,497,000 (€307m)
Cork: 1,113,000 (€337m)
Galway: 1,024,000 (€247m)
Kerry: 964,000 (€205m)
Wexford: 654,000 (€146m)
Mayo: 503,000 (€108m)
Tipperary (N&S): 496,000 (€92m)
Donegal: 376,000 (€96m)
Clare: 362,000 (€86m)
Wicklow: 319,000 (€49m)
Waterford: 327,000 (€58m)
Kilkenny: 298,000 (€69m)
Kildare: 286,000 (€36m)
Limerick: 284,000 (€46m)
Sligo: 247,000 (€51m)
Carlow: 228,000 (€36m)
Laois: 228,000 (€30m)*
Offaly: 228,000 (€30m)*
Meath: 223,000 (€44m)
Cavan: 206,000 (€32m)*
Leitrim: 206,000 (€32m)*
Louth: 179,000 (€30m)*
Monaghan: 179,000 (€30m)*
Westmeath: 159,000 (€18m)
Roscommon: 130,000 (€18m)*
Longford: 130,000 (€18m)*
The domestic figures are gleaned from CSO data, while overseas figures are calculated from a combination of the CSO’s Tourism & Travel and Household Travel Surveys (HTS); NISRA’s Northern Ireland Passenger Survey (NIPS) and Fáilte Ireland’s own Survey of Overseas Travellers (SOT), it says.
Overseas visitors and associated revenue data, meanwhile, is derived from Fáilte Ireland’s Survey of Overseas Travellers (SOT), which conducted 10,000 interviews with departing overseas tourists at major air and sea ports last year.
* The CSO publishes a combined domestic visitor figure for these counties as the sample size is insufficient to produce a robust result by individual county.
