- Image source: TheLiberal.ie
Ireland was one of just two EU member states to record a fall in tourist bed nights last year, despite new records being set for tourism accommodation across the European Union overall.
Data released by the European Commission shows nights spent in tourist accommodation in the Republic declined by an estimated 1.8% in 2025, falling to 41.3 million, reports Breaking News.
This represented the weakest performance among EU member states, with Romania the only other country to see a drop in tourist numbers, down by 1.4%.
The decline in Ireland’s tourism performance came at a time when total tourist bed nights across the EU increased by 2%, rising by 61.5 million compared to 2024 to reach a record 3.08 billion, reports Breaking News.
Several countries recorded particularly strong growth in tourist accommodation, with bed nights increasing by 9.9% in Malta, 7% in Poland and 6.2% in Latvia.
Across the EU, hotels accounted for 63% of overnight stays, followed by holiday homes, guesthouses and other short-stay accommodation at 24%, with campsites making up the remaining 13%, reports Breaking News.
In Ireland, hotels represented 61% of all tourist bed nights, while guesthouses and other short-stay accommodation accounted for 33%, and campsites just 6%.
Overseas visitors made up an estimated 58% of tourism accommodation demand in the Republic last year, with domestic tourists contributing the remaining 42%, reports Breaking News.
Figures also show that tourist bed nights in Ireland during the third quarter of 2025, the peak summer tourism season, fell by 4.1% compared with the same period in 2024.
The data revealed mixed trends across different accommodation types, with tourist nights down 8.4% in hotels and down 27% in campsites, but rising by 15.4% in holiday and other short-stay accommodation, reports Breaking News.
Official statistics indicate that more than 35.9 million tourism bed nights were recorded in Ireland during the first ten months of 2025, a fall of 1.1 million compared with the same period in 2024.
This amounted to an annual decline of 3%, while overall EU figures rose by 2.1%. However, an increase in visitor numbers during the final two months of 2025, including a 13% year-on-year rise in November, led the European Commission to estimate the full-year decrease at just under 2%, reports Breaking News.
A detailed breakdown shows that bed nights by domestic visitors in the Republic dropped by 4.4% to 15 million between January and October.
The reduction was less severe among overseas visitors over the same period, with tourist bed nights down 2.0% to 20.9 million, reports Breaking News.
The Eurostat tourism figures for Ireland are based on data from the Central Statistics Office, which has been disputed by organisations such as the Irish Hotels Federation, which argues the figures overstate the scale of the downturn.
The European Commission said tourist bed nights across the EU are now well above 2019 levels, exceeding pre-pandemic figures by 7.2%, reports Breaking News.
However, it noted that the tourism sectors in five EU countries – Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia – have yet to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Spain remains the most popular destination for international tourists, recording 330 million bed nights in 2025, followed by Italy with 264 million, France with 150 million and Greece with 131 million, reports Breaking News.
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