International tourists spend less in Kilkenny than other Irish towns Fáilte Ireland survey reveals

International visitors to Kilkenny spend less of their holiday cash in the county than holiday-makers to other counties, new figures show.

But Irish people coming to visit Kilkenny spent a little more here than many other counties in Ireland - showing the boost to the county’s economy from domestic visitors for hen and stag parties and weekend festivals!

The Central Statistics Office, together with Fáilte Ireland, keep records of visitor number and their holiday spending, through passenger surveys.

Those figures can now tell us that in 2017 Kilkenny welcomed 315,000 foreign visitors. Between them they spent €55 million. While this is a great injection into the local economy the same survey figures show other counties with a much higher spend per tourist. For example visitors to Louth also spent €55 million - even though that county only had 172,000 international visitors.

Kilkenny is number eight on the list of counties that attracted foreign tourists last year, behind Dublin, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick and Mayo.

When it comes to domestic tourism Kilkenny is only the twelfth most popular destination with Irish people. Last year 211,000 Irish people visited. Ahead of this county were Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Wexford, Mayo, Tipperary, Donegal, Clare, Wicklow and Waterford.

In a reverse of the habits of international visitors, Irish visitors spent a little more per-person in Kilkenny - 298,000 visitors spent €69 million. 327,000 visitors to Waterford spent €58 million; Wicklow’s 319,000 domestic visitors spent €49 million; and Kildare welcomed 286,000 visitors who spent €36 million.