Fáilte Ireland is spending more than €10 million on a campaign to encourage short breaks at home after domestic tourism hit a “flat” spot in 2025.
The tourism authority paid out €2.46 million developing its Find Yourself’ campaign, with €1.85 million spent on videos and other promotional content.
There was a further bill of €293,000 for “key visuals” for regional areas and about €20,000 paid for radio and digital audio material. Fáilte Ireland also spent €301,000 on “social media assets”, according to records released under FOI.
In the first part of the campaign, covering March to May, the marketing budget was €2.28 million of which €460,000 was spent on digital marketing and €421,000 on traditional media. Further expenditure included €215,000 for public relations and €1.18 million that was categorised as “audiovisual” spend in the records.
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Fáilte Ireland said the 2026 spend on the campaign would be around €8 million and that the content created was a long-term investment for use over a five-year period.
It said that €250,000 of the budget was earmarked for content creators, including travel influencers and celebrities. A slide show said this could include five content creators with a combined following of two million people, including Roz Purcell and Kevin Penrose.
A separate page said “rejuvenators” like Katja Mia, the Gastro Gays and Tadhg Fleming had an audience of 4.3 million people.
The presentation said the Find Yourself motif had scored far better than Fáilte Ireland’s Keep Discovering branding and other global travel advertising.
It said short breaks in Ireland meant less pressure to do and see new things, freedom to make last-minute decisions and “comfort in the familiarity”.
A design brief said: “We want people to prioritise themselves by taking short breaks. We want them to be captivated by the spirit of Ireland, freeing them to go with the flow and find the joy in small moments.”
It said Fáilte Ireland was looking to grow revenue, especially in offpeak periods and “less mature” destinations like the northern part of the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and Ireland’s Ancient East.
One slide said there had been significant growth in domestic revenue since 2019, but that 2025 had been “tracking flat”.
Asked about the campaign, Fáilte Ireland said domestic tourism generated 40 per cent of overall tourism revenue in the State.
“Domestic tourism is a vital driver of Ireland’s visitor economy,” a spokesman said. “In 2025, Irish residents took an estimated 15.4 million domestic trips, generating approximately €3.6 billion in domestic tourism revenue.
“In quarter one of 2026, the number of trips taken by Irish residents within the State increased by 6 per cent compared to the same period last year, while domestic tourism expenditure grew 9 per cent, with stronger growth in holiday spend (+14 per cent) recorded.”
That’s an improvement on 2025 when the number of domestic overnight trips taken by Irish residents was down 8 per cent on 2024. The decline was down almost entirely to a smaller number of people travelling to stay with family and friends last year. The numbers staying in hotels or other accommodation was flat on the previous year, according to Central Statistics Office data.
