All-Ireland finals boost spending in July
AIB said its Cork customers spent €920,000 in Dublin on July 5, the day of their county team's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final victory over Dublin, but on July 20, when Cork lost to Tipperary in the final, disappointed Cork fans spent 13% less in the capital than they had on the day of their team's semi-final win.
Meanwhile, Tipperary fans spent 27% more on the day their team claimed the Liam MacCarthy Cup in the July 20 final, than they had on the day of their semi-final win over Kilkenny on July 6th.
And while Kerry may have won the Sam Maguire Cup, Donegal fans spent 12% more in Dublin than the Kerry fans did the day the two teams played in the All Ireland Senior Football Final on July 27.
AIB noted that overall spending in July was up 9% on the same month in 2024 with online spend growing more strongly - up 14% - than instore spend - up 4% - over the 12 months.
The average in store transaction was €28.80 compared to €96.90 for the average online transaction, the bank said.
Groceries was one of few sectors where in-store spend held up strongly, with spending 6% higher overall and 93% of those purchases made in stores rather than online.
But the spend on clothing rose just 1% in July compared to the same month a year ago, below the rate of inflation. Department stores saw expenditure fall by 1% in the 12 months to the end of July, AIB noted.
Despite July being traditionally the peak tourist season, the picture for the domestic hospitality sector was mixed, today's report shows.
Spend in pubs in Ireland was down 9% compared to the same time last year, with the biggest falls recorded in Wicklow (down 19.6%), Dublin (down 17.2%) and Clare ( down 11.1%), and the biggest increases in Kerry (11.6%), Donegal (6.7%) and Tipperary (3.4%) - all counties which were involved in the All-Ireland Senior Championship finals.
But restaurant spend was up 10%, while the amount of money spent in Irish hotels rose by 3% and car rental spend motored 8% higher.
AIB also noted an increase in public transport use coincided with spending on parking falling by 12% compared to July last year.
Adrian Moynihan, Head of Consumer at AIB, said today Spend Trend report reflects the busy month that July was, with many people out and about enjoying the fine weather, the peak tourist season kicking off and a range of high-profile sporting and cultural events taking place.
"It also highlights the resilience of consumer confidence, with overall spending up 9% year-on-year. Notably, online spending has surged by 14%, outpacing the 4% increase in in-store transactions," Mr Moynihan said.
"While the hospitality sector experienced mixed results, with pub spending down but restaurant and hotel spending up, the data underscores the dynamic nature of consumer behaviour during the peak tourist season," he added.
The data for today's report was compiled from 78 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online during July and has been anonymised and aggregated.
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