Tourism Ireland envisages overseas tourism revenue to the island can grow to over €10 billion annually by 2031, with the right strategic supports.
This comes as Tourism Ireland this week launched details of its marketing strategy and plans to promote the island of Ireland overseas in 2026, at an event attended by Tourism Minister Peter Burke and over 600 tourism industry leaders from around the country.
“Tourism is a key indigenous industry across this island, supporting jobs across regions and introducing around 8 million overseas visitors per year to all our island offers,” said Alice Mansergh, chief executive of Tourism Ireland.
“Overseas visitors spent over €6 billion in 2025, and we’ll be targeting growth to over €10 billion by 2031, supporting the Minister’s strategy, ‘A new era for Irish Tourism’.”
At the event, Tourism Ireland noted that 2025 was not without challenges for the tourism sector – including macro-economic uncertainty and the Dublin Airport passenger cap at the beginning of the year – and visitor numbers and spend were soft compared to 2024, but stable compared to 2023. The group said momentum picked up as the year progressed, with consecutive months of visitor growth from August onwards.
This year, Tourism Ireland will undertake an extensive and targeted programme of promotional activity across 15 key overseas markets. New focus areas will include culinary tourism, activity tourism, year-round reasons to travel, as well as inspiration to explore from gateway cities to regions.
Tourism Ireland will promote the island of Ireland through advertising, publicity, digital, social and Gen AI, reaching potential visitors in the channels where they research holidays today. Its marketing plans for 2026 will focus on outcomes in line with government policies North and South, including Minister Peter Burke’s recently launched ‘New Era for Irish Tourism’.
“The government has taken concrete steps to support the tourism sector, including an allocation of €400 million for tourism under my Department’s Sectoral Capital Plan 2026-2030, the reduction in the VAT rate on food and catering services to 9% from July 2026 and a new strategic air access fund,” said Tourism Minister Peter Burke.
“A total of €71.43 million is being provided in Budget 2026 to the Overseas Tourism Marketing Fund. Aligned with the new Action Plan on Market Diversification, this level of funding will allow Tourism Ireland to seize fresh opportunities for growth, expand markets and continue to attract value-adding visitors across the island throughout 2026 and beyond.”
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