A New Era for Irish Tourism: The €10 Billion Target, 71 Policy Actions and the Plan to Make Ireland a World-Class Destination by 2031

In January 2026, Tourism Minister Peter Burke stood before 600 tourism industry leaders and launched what he described as a "new era" for Irish tourism. The strategy — formally titled A New Era for Irish Tourism — is the most comprehensive national tourism policy statement Ireland has produced in years, backed by €400 million in capital investment from 2026 to 2030 and anchored by targets that represent a 50 per cent increase in overseas tourism revenue within five years.

The headline ambition: overseas visitor spending growing to over €10 billion annually by 2031, up from approximately €6 billion in 2025. Tourism Ireland CEO Alice Mansergh put it plainly at the strategy launch: "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."

The Scale of Irish Tourism Today

Before understanding where the strategy is taking the sector, it helps to understand what Irish tourism already represents.

According to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the sector was worth €8.89 billion to the national economy in 2025, accounting for both overseas visitor spending and domestic tourism. Approximately 230,000 people work directly in tourism across Ireland. Around 46,000 small and medium-sized businesses are involved in the industry. And approximately 8 million overseas visitors travel to the island of Ireland every year.

This is not a niche industry. It is one of Ireland's largest indigenous sectors — generating revenue, employment and economic activity in every region of the country, from the Wild Atlantic Way to Ireland's Ancient East and Hidden Heartlands.

The 71-Point Strategy — What It Covers

A New Era for Irish Tourism contains 71 policy recommendations across five strategic themes.

Growing revenue and visitor numbers. The strategy targets overseas visitor spending of approximately €9 billion from international visitors and €5.8 billion from domestic tourism by 2031, with annual growth of 6 to 7 per cent over the five-year period. Employment is projected to grow from 228,000 to 251,000 jobs by 2030.

Market diversification. While defending core markets in Great Britain and the United States, the strategy targets significant growth in Mainland Europe, Canada, the UAE and India. Tourism Ireland has established new representation in the UAE and India in 2026, dedicated to growing business from these markets. A direct Dublin-Shanghai flight was announced by Minister Burke in April 2026 — part of a new strategic air access fund included in the strategy.

Regional and seasonal distribution. One of the most persistent challenges in Irish tourism is its concentration in Dublin and in the summer months. The strategy specifically targets a minimum 7 per cent annual increase in visitor activity in Hidden Heartlands, Ireland's Ancient East and the northern stretch of the Wild Atlantic Way — areas with extraordinary product but lower visitor volumes than their potential warrants.

Sustainability. The strategy explicitly embeds circularity, recycling and waste prevention within its tourism development framework. Fáilte Ireland is implementing sustainability pledges across the sector, and the EU's new Strategy for Sustainable Tourism — due for publication in 2026 — will provide an additional European framework within which Ireland's approach will operate.

Investment and infrastructure. €400 million has been allocated from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment's Sectoral Capital Plan 2026-2030 specifically for tourism. A further €71.43 million is being provided in Budget 2026 to the Overseas Tourism Marketing Fund. And the VAT reduction on food and catering services to 9 per cent from July 2026 provides a direct commercial benefit for every food and hospitality business in the country.

Tourism Ireland's 2026 Marketing Machine

Tourism Ireland — the all-island body responsible for promoting the island overseas — has launched its most extensive marketing programme in years to support the strategy's ambitions.

In 2026, Tourism Ireland is running targeted promotional activity across 15 key overseas markets. It has increased resources for year-round campaigns in Germany and France — Ireland's most important Mainland European markets — and expanded its North American teams. The organisation helped over 750 small and medium-sized tourism businesses through global travel trade events in the first half of 2025, generating an estimated €70 million in business pipeline from those events alone.

Lonely Planet's naming of Tipperary as a top five global destination to visit in 2026 — highlighted at the World Travel Market in London — is the kind of third-party endorsement the strategy is designed to generate and amplify.

Why Now

The strategy arrives at a moment of particular significance for Irish tourism.

The sector faced headwinds in 2025 — macro-economic uncertainty, the Dublin Airport passenger cap in the early part of the year and global economic shifts that softened visitor numbers compared to 2024. But momentum recovered strongly from August onwards, with consecutive months of visitor growth. The sector ended 2025 in a position of stability rather than decline — and with a new national strategy, increased government investment and the VAT reduction arriving in July 2026, the platform for accelerated growth is in place.

The tourism portfolio's move into the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment — treating tourism as the economic engine it is rather than a cultural afterthought — signals a shift in political priority that the industry has been seeking for years.

The Bottom Line

€10 billion in overseas tourism revenue by 2031. 251,000 jobs. €400 million in capital investment. 71 policy actions. A new VAT rate for hospitality. New market representation in the UAE and India. A direct Dublin-Shanghai flight.

Ireland's tourism strategy is not a vision document — it is a funded, targeted, multi-agency plan with specific revenue and employment outcomes attached. Whether it delivers at the pace and scale the numbers demand will depend on execution — on air access, on regional product development, on the sustainability of the natural and cultural assets that make Ireland worth visiting. But the ambition is real, the investment is committed and the direction of travel is clear.