Killarney

<h3>Tourism Industry bosses in Killarney remain upbeat despite a recent F&aacute;ilte Ireland survey saying that tourist spending in Kerry for last year had dropped by 46% compared to 2019 figures.</h3>
Despite the large percentage drop &ndash; attributed to pandemic related closures &#8211; Kerry performed well in terms of the share of visitors to the county and tourism spend.
 Tourism in the county generated &euro;162 million in 2021 according to estimates on spend by F&aacute;ilte Ireland. This is compared to a spend of &euro;299 million in 2019.
 Domestic trips to Kerry in 2021 were over half those in 2019, despite the widespread enforced closure of tourism and hospitality businesses for a considerable portion of 2021. According to the Central Statistics Office Household Travel Survey, there were 602,000 domestic trips to Kerry in 2021, compared to 1,105,000 in 2019.
 Kerry is in second place on the highest tourist spend list in a year that was largely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, lockdowns and a lowered intent to travel due to health and safety regulations.
 Visitors stayed an average of 3.8 nights in the county, an impressive result demonstrating the value of a sustained year-long campaign to communicate the variety of experiences made available to visitors by the Kerry Tourism Industry Federation (KTIF).
 &ldquo;Taking everything into account, the report shows a relatively positive outcome for Kerry in terms of maintaining our share of domestic tourists to the county and achieving tourism spends that outperform proportionately to the amount of time tourism businesses were operational during the year,&rdquo; said Patrick O&rsquo;Donoghue, chairperson of the marketing committee of KTIF.
 The sector is showing promising signs of recovery thus far in 2022 with domestic tourism remaining strong combined with the welcome return of overseas visitors to the county.

Kerry tourism showing signs of recovery

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