Emphasising regional development and turning the island into a “foodie” holiday destination are part of a new plan to increase the number of tourists coming to Ireland by one million per year for the next five years.
The aim is to bring overseas tourism revenue up to €9 billion by 2031, an increase of 50 per cent on last year.
The plan, ‘A New Era for Irish Tourism’, was launched at Belvedere House in Mullingar by the Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Business, Tourism and Trade Peter Burke on Monday.
Tourism Ireland will market “standout seasonal events” such as Winter in Dublin, Home of Halloween and St Patrick’s Day across overseas markets to attract visitors beyond the “summer peak”, it says.
READ MORE
The number of tourists visiting Ireland is down so far this year compared with 2024.
In the months to October 2025, total visitor numbers were just over 5.4 million, down 6.4 per cent on the same 10 month period in 2024 when Ireland welcomed 5.8 million people.
A total of 568,900 people made visits to Ireland last month – a 4 per cent increase on October 2024.
The plan also includes supporting tourism-related SMEs to “grow and scale to” compete on the domestic and international markets and harness the full potential of digital and AI.
[ Tourism spend drops in October despite rise in numbersOpens in new window ]
Mr Burke said improving digitalisation among smaller businesses would be “critical”.
“Eighty per cent of people who plan their trips get all their information online and around 30 per cent are using generative AI to plan their itinerary,” he said.
“So we really need to work with businesses developing their digital proposition, their process transformation. A huge amount of work will be done in that area.”
The minister also said he was confident the country has enough capacity to meet growing tourism demands. He said there are 11,500 bed spaces under construction, with around 8,500 of those in Dublin.
Mr Burke said the Government was also reducing the number of State contracts where hotels were being used for International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
He said there will be a 17 per cent increase in the number of flights coming into Ireland this winter, which was “significant” compared to other markets in Europe.
Alice Mansergh, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said the passenger cap at Dublin Airport currently being on hold was “a positive” and that airlines would “love to know that it’s going to be permanently resolved for the future”.
Ms Mansergh said 2024 was a “record year” for tourism in Ireland but that 2025 had been “a little more volatile, a little softer and more in line with 2023”.
“There has been a lot going on in the world for consumers between trade wars and tariffs and economic uncertainty,” she said.
Caroline Bocquel, chief executive of Fáilte Ireland, said the focus on driving tourism into the regions and lengthening seasonality was welcome.
“We produce some of the best food in the world so looking at this now as being an opportunity to be very strategic about that and to include that very clearly and visibility with what we’re doing in tourism,” she added.
[ Americans saved the tourism sector this year, but will that continue?Opens in new window ]
