CSO meets tourism industry over ‘confusing’ visitor data

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has held a series of meetings with tourism bodies over mounting concerns that declining inbound tourist data is out of kilter with industry experience.

Fáilte Ireland became the latest organisation to seek a briefing from statisticians.

“We are talking to CSO. And we’re talking to industry, we’re talking to a number of independent research companies, trying to crash various data sources together to get the best possible picture as to how the season is trending,” said Paul Keeley, the tourism agency’s director of regional development.

Inbound tourist numbers have declined consistently since last September, raising eyebrows among tourism operators who have not noticed a corresponding effect on business.

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“Certainly the numbers as quoted by CSO jar with industry. It doesn’t reflect the reality of what industry is reporting on the ground,” Mr Keeley said.

“The general sense around the country is that it’s a little healthier than is reported by CSO at the moment.”

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He was addressing a recent meeting of Dublin city councillors where he said the results of a forthcoming Fáilte Ireland barometer would give a strong sense of industry sentiment for the first half of the year and expectations for the second.

The fall in visitor numbers peaked at a monthly year-on-year reduction of 30 per cent in February before improving slightly to minus 15 per cent in March. Data for April, due next week, will be carefully watched.

In a follow-up statement, Fáilte Ireland said it was analysing and comparing the March statistics with other data sources, including feedback from tourism businesses and industry stakeholders “to get an accurate overview of sector performance”.

The CSO’s Inbound Tourism series explores the number of visitors, where they come from, how many nights they stay and spending habits.

A spokeswoman said it has had ongoing engagement with stakeholders to consider the downward year-on-year trend but that it was “confident” in its reporting.

More than 13,000 departing passengers are surveyed each month. Data is collected “according to a consistent and robust methodology” and calibrated against passenger flow data provided by ports and airports.

“These methods, which underwent an independent review commissioned by external stakeholders in mid-2024, have been applied consistently since the survey was introduced in 2023,” the spokeswoman said.

“In line with CSO practices, our methods are subject to quality assurance in terms of sampling and data collection.”

At the same meeting of councillors, Martin Harte, chief executive of the Temple Bar Company said the overseas visitor numbers at the city’s TradFest in January were up 8 per cent.

“I think there’s probably a little bit of confusion over visitor numbers and their impact,” he said. “Business appears to be the same if not slightly ahead of this time last year.”

Earlier this month both the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) and the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) were also due to meet the CSO. Both bodies said March’s numbers did not match the hospitality business experience.