Tourism Ireland has blamed the fall in tourism numbers in December on the closure of Holyhead Port and the Dublin airport passenger cap driving up the cost of fares.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show 390,700 foreign visitors completed a trip to Ireland in December 2024, a decrease of 12.2% compared with December 2023.

Spending was also substantially down as the visitors spent €328.6m on their trips (excluding fares), down 20.4% compared with December 2023.

And in a further blow the visitors stayed a total of 3.9 million nights in the country, a drop of 14.4% when compared with December 2023.

The average length of stay for foreign resident overnight visitors was 9.9 nights, down from an average of 10.1 nights in December 2023.

Tourism Ireland said overall 2024 was actually a positive year for the country as both tourist numbers and spend increased.

There were almost 6.6 million overseas visitors to Ireland last year, up 5% when compared to 2023 and spending reached €6bn, up 11% on the previous year.

However, the fall off in December was blamed on "the Dublin Airport cap and the closure of Holyhead Port not only reducing capacity but also driving a double-digit increase in fares during December."

Holyhead Port off the coast of Anglesey in North Wales was closed after one of its ferry berths suffered damage during Storm Darragh on 6th and 7th December.

In mid-January sailings into and out of Holyhead Port resumed after one of the two ferry berths that were damaged reopened.

However, Holyhead Port has insisted that it will still be able to operate at full volume by altering its schedule.

TI noted in December, 5 out of 10 visitors were visiting friends and relatives, up from 3 out of 10 for the rest of the year, due to Christmas.

In a statement TI said: "Holidaymakers made up a smaller than usual proportion of total visitors. This is a typical trend in December but may have been exacerbated by trends in capacity and fares. 

"Despite strong growth at regional airports, challenges in volumes of visitors may persist through the coming winter months, as the cap at Dublin Airport cap has an impact."

It continued: "While there is a ‘hold’ for legal consideration of the airport cap for summer 2025, there is still impact from applying the cap in winter.

"Island-wide, air seat capacity for the winter from Great Britain has dipped to 97% the level of last winter and from North America to 96% and these are two of our key markets."