ALMOST 7.5M GUEST nights were booked on leading online booking platforms for short-term tourist accommodation in Ireland last year – up almost 15% on 2023 levels.

Figures published by the European Commission show almost one million additional guest nights were spent in such accommodation in the Republic in 2024 compared to the previous year.

The figures, which are based on bookings made by holidaymakers through Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and Tripadvisor, confirm a strong performance by the tourist industry in 2024 both in Ireland and across the EU.

They reveal that tourists from abroad accounted for approximately three-quarters of all guest nights in such accommodation in Ireland last year booking over 5.5m nights – up 17%.

The rate of growth was more sluggish among Irish holidaymakers with over 1.9m guest nights recorded in the domestic segment of the market in 2024 – an annual increase of 10%.

On a regional level, the figures highlight how bookings are spread relatively evenly around the country with almost 2.8m guest nights spent in short-stay tourist accommodation last year in the Southern region which includes Cork, Kerry, Clare, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny – up 14% yearly.

A total of 2.35m guest nights were booked in the Northern and Western regions which includes Galway and Mayo as well as most counties in the border region representing an annual increase of almost 14%.

However, the biggest growth was recorded in the Eastern and Midland region which includes Dublin and other counties in mid- and north Leinster where guest nights were up over 17% to almost 2.3m.

At the same time, Eastern and Midland is the only one of the three Irish regions, based on EU classifications, which has still not exceeded its pre-pandemic number of bookings.

Despite last year’s strong performance, the number of guest nights spent in Eastern and Midland is still 24% below the 3m recorded in 2019.

In contrast, the number of guest nights in the Northern and Western region in 2024 was 39% ahead of pre-pandemic levels, while the figure for Southern was 27%.

Overall, guest nights across Ireland booked via online platforms last year were up almost 8% on 2019 levels.

The latest figures show the Eastern and Midland region – largely due to Dublin’s presence – is the most popular region for such stays among foreign visitors with just over 2m last year.

However, Dublin does not feature in the list of the top 20 of Europe’s most popular city destinations based on guest nights arranged through online booking platforms.

Paris was again the favourite location with 23.5m guest nights – the equivalent of almost 65,000 guests daily in the French capital.

Across the EU, bookings soared to a record-breaking 854m guest nights last year – up almost 19% on 2023 figures with an extra 135m guest nights.

Ireland is ranked in 15th place behind Sweden (8m) and ahead of Denmark (7.3m).

The figures published by Eurostat are the result of a landmark agreement reached in 2020 between the European Commission and the four leading platforms providing short-term accommodation booking services. It excludes figures for other types of accommodation such as hotels or campsites.

The latest figures show solid growth in the number of guest nights booked online in the first quarter of 2025 across the EU – up 4.8% compared to the same period last year to 129.6m guest nights.

However, numbers are up less than 1% in Ireland to just over 904,000.

The figures will no longer include data on Tripadvisor since the start of 2025 as the company has exited the short-stay accommodation sector.