Galway less dependent on UK tourists than rest of the country

Galway’s tourism sector may be ‘cushioned’ from the feared negative impact Brexit will have on the numbers of visitors to Ireland from Britain, a new report suggests.

Analysis of Fáilte Ireland’s latest tourism statistics reveal Galway is far less reliant on the British market than the tourism sector in other parts of the country.

Just 18% of all visitors to Galway last year were from Britain compared with other counties who are over-reliant on visitors from across the Irish Sea.

Some 69% of visitors to Monaghan, for example, were from Britain, a market that is also hugely important for counties Cavan (64%), Longford (50%), Westmeath (47%), Louth (49%), Roscommon (46%), Kildare (53%), Laois (54%), and Leitrim (51%).

Analysts fear Britain’s exit from the European Union, and the impact it will have on Sterling, will have a knock-on effect on Ireland’s tourism sector. But the figures suggest any Brexit shocks will have a lesser impact in Galway than other counties.

Some 243,000 British visited Galway in 2015, representing a market share of 17.9% of all visitors to the city and county.

Nationally, the market share of visitors to Ireland stands at 41% of the total.

Some 621,000 visitors came from mainland Europe, which accounted for 40% of all tourists who came to Galway last year. It means mainland Europe is now Galway’s most important tourist market.

Some 373,000 visitors came to Galway from North America, accounting for one-in-four of all visitors (27%) to the county.

The Fáilte Ireland research shows that the revenue generated in Galway by tourism was almost €670 million in 2015.

The vast majority of that revenue – €475 million – was spent by overseas visitors to Galway.

The rest – €194.1 million – was pumped into Galway’s local economy by Irish visitors.

There were some 895,000 domestic visitors to Galway in 2015. That represented a slight dip on the previous year when some 916,000 Irish visitors came to the county but Galway has remained in the top-five most popular destinations for domestic visitors for the past five years.

In 2014, revenue from domestic visitors to Galway topped €200 million for the first time since the boom years.

The reduction of 21,000 fewer domestic visitors to Galway last year, compared with 2014 was offset by a big increase in overseas visitors.

A total of 119,000 additional overseas visitors holidayed in Galway in 2015, compared with the previous year.

There were 1.354 million visitors here in 2015, compared with 1.235 million in 2014.

It means that Galway was once again the third most popular destination for overseas visitors who came to Ireland, behind only Cork, and Dublin, which was the country’s top destination.