Holidays Travel

The Republic of Ireland's most popular counties for tourists

The Kilkenny Arts Festival takes place each August and draws thousands of visitors
The Kilkenny Arts Festival takes place each August and draws thousands of visitors The Kilkenny Arts Festival takes place each August and draws thousands of visitors

NEW visitor figures have revealed the Republic’s most popular counties for visitors.

Data from Fáilte Ireland shows, unsurprisingly, Dublin is the most visited county for those outside the south.

The capital’s county was the destination for almost five million people from overseas in 2015 while at the other end of the scale, just 30,000 paid a visit to Longford.

The figures do not include visitors from Northern Ireland.

Other popular counties include Cork, which came in second with 1.5m visitors, and Galway – third with 1.4m.

Dublin's appeal comes as no surprise. Top tourist attractions include the Guinness Storehouse at St James Gate, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Book of Kells/

Co Cork’s tourist lures include the world-famous Blarney Castle, home to the eponymous Blarney Stone, and the bustling English Market.

Galway offers a wealth of attractions including the city’s welcoming nightlife, and the Galway Races.

However, despite the counties’ performance in visitor numbers, the figures did not correspond exactly to the revenue created by tourism in each county in 2015.

Kildare raised the seventh-highest total of tourist euros, with €87 million, yet ranked at 13 in the list of most visited counties.

Meanwhile, Kilkenny, which draws people to its annual summer arts festival, was the ninth most-visited county, yet only made €45 million from visitors, placing it sixteenth in the list of earners.

A spokeswoman for Fáilte Ireland said the body was committed to ensuring tourism across the Republic grew in an “equitable manner”.

She added: “Many businesses outside Dublin and away from traditional tourism hotspots enjoy a tourism season as short as eight weeks and we are determined to assist many operators to trade longer into the year."

Overseas visitors by county (2015)

1 Dublin: 4,938,000


2 Cork: 1,449,000


3 Galway: 1,354,000


4 Kerry: 1,026,000


5 Clare: 597,000


6 Limerick: 537,000


7 Mayo: 302,000


8 Donegal: 289,000


9 Kilkenny: 267,000


10 Waterford: 263,000


11 Wicklow: 248,000


12 Wexford: 221,000


13 Kildare: 214,000


14 Sligo: 186,000


15 Tipperary: 180,000


16 Cavan: 144,000


17 Meath: 134,000


18 Louth: 125,000


19 Westmeath: 116,000


20 Monaghan: 65,000


21 Carlow: 62,000


22 Laois & Leitrim: 57,000 each


23 Offally & Roscommon: 50,000 each


24 Longford: 30,000

Overseas tourist revenue earned by county:

1 Dublin: €1,726m


2 Cork: €558m


3 Galway: €475m


4 Kerry: €234m


5 Limerick: €212m


6 Clare: €127m


7 Kildare: €89m


8 Donegal: €83m


9 Wicklow: €82m


10 Mayo: €80m


11 Waterford: €75m


12 Tipperary: €66m


13 Wexford: €65m


14 Sligo: €51m


15 Cavan: €50m


16 Kilkenny: €45m


17 Meath: €44m


18 Louth & Westmeath: €36m each


19 Carlow: €32m


20 Monaghan: €25m


21 Roscommon: €20m


22 Laois: €18m


23 Leitrim: €15m


24 Offaly: €14m


25 Longford: €8m