Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) chose 26 February 2026 to publish its first tourism snapshot of the year, and the figures make encouraging reading for corporates that depend on inbound mobility. According to the release, almost 430,000 overseas residents completed a trip to Ireland in January—up 27 % on January 2025 and only 5 % below the same month in the pre-pandemic benchmark year of 2024. Business trips accounted for 18 % of all arrivals, indicating that Ireland’s conferences, client meetings and plant visits are firmly back on the international agenda. A deeper dive shows that Great Britain remained the dominant source market, supplying 43 % of visitors, followed by Continental Europe (36 %), North America (14 %) and “Rest of World” markets (7 %). Spend tells a similar story: European visitors laid out €101 million, Britons €85 million and North Americans €59 million, bringing total visitor expenditure (excluding air and sea fares) to €287 million—an impressive 34 % year-on-year leap. Length of stay averaged 8.3 nights, which is broadly stable, but the distribution of trip purposes has shifted. Visiting friends and relatives (46 %) and leisure (30 %) still dominate, yet the 18 % share for business is the highest January reading since before the pandemic. Travel managers say the comparatively weak euro and Ireland’s growing life-sciences and tech footprints are encouraging regional HQs to hold kick-off meetings in Dublin and Cork rather than in London or Amsterdam.
![Foreign business travel to Ireland surges 27 % as CSO releases January 2026 visitor data]()
For organisations managing this rebound in travel, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork. The company’s online platform helps business visitors secure Irish visas, pre-clearance letters and employment permits quickly, with real-time status tracking and expert support—crucial when schedules are tight. Find out more at https://www.visahq.com/ireland/
Airlines are already reacting. Aer Lingus has announced that it will restore its daily Dublin–San Francisco service to double-daily for the summer season, while United Airlines plans to up-gauge its Shannon–New York route from a Boeing 757 to a 767. Hotels, however, are warning of capacity pinch-points for larger events, citing an 8 % rise in average daily rate versus January 2025. For mobility professionals the headline is clear: demand for seats, meeting space and temporary accommodation is ramping up earlier than expected in 2026. Companies with assignment kick-offs or training rotations slated for Q2 should move quickly to lock in corporate rates and ensure that employment-permit lead-times can keep pace with a busier immigration system.
For organisations managing this rebound in travel, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork. The company’s online platform helps business visitors secure Irish visas, pre-clearance letters and employment permits quickly, with real-time status tracking and expert support—crucial when schedules are tight. Find out more at https://www.visahq.com/ireland/
Airlines are already reacting. Aer Lingus has announced that it will restore its daily Dublin–San Francisco service to double-daily for the summer season, while United Airlines plans to up-gauge its Shannon–New York route from a Boeing 757 to a 767. Hotels, however, are warning of capacity pinch-points for larger events, citing an 8 % rise in average daily rate versus January 2025. For mobility professionals the headline is clear: demand for seats, meeting space and temporary accommodation is ramping up earlier than expected in 2026. Companies with assignment kick-offs or training rotations slated for Q2 should move quickly to lock in corporate rates and ensure that employment-permit lead-times can keep pace with a busier immigration system.
