Around a hundred general travel agents and travel agents specialising in golf tourism in Ireland have shown great interest in the Costa Brava and Girona Pyrenees‘ family tourism, skiing and golf offer.
In autumn, the Costa Brava Girona Tourist Board is taking part in two promotional and commercial actions aimed at Irish intermediary channels in order to bolster this outbound market’s interest in Girona destinations.
The spotlight was on the Costa Brava and Girona Pyrenees‘ tourism offer during the TTR Travel Media Ireland roadshow, which visited the cities of Dublin, Cork and Limerick from 23rd to 25th September. Close to a hundred direct meetings resulted from the series of business encounters with travel agents from agencies such as Oscar Travel, MarbleCity, Bantry Travel, Justplit and The Travel Room, among others. The agents sought information related to the 2025/2026 ski season, the range of golf facilities on offer and, in general, about new developments in coastal family tourism destinations.
This was followed on 2nd October by the Golf Costa Brava workshop in Dublin, organised by the Tourist Board’s Golf Marketing Club, with the participation of eight Girona-based companies from the sector and specialised Irish agencies, including Killester Travel, Concierge Golf Ireland and North & West Coast Links Golf Ireland.
With a view to boosting sales, a visit to the area in mid-October was organised for five Irish journalists from leading media outlets (Irish Daily Mail, Evening Herald, Sunday Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Star/Irish Mirror and Dublin Gazette) to raise awareness of the active tourism on offer in the Girona Pyrenees and the destination’s positioning in the field of sustainability.
Looking ahead to 2026, the Tourist Board plans to take part in Ireland’s most important trade fair targeting the end consumer, Holiday World in Dublin (23-25 January 2026), in order to promote the Costa Brava and Girona Pyrenees‘ tourism offer and latest developments among visitors.
Recovery and growth of the Irish market in the destination.
Irish tourists who come to Catalonia choose the destination for leisure and holidays (95%) and usually travel accompanied by their partner, family or friends. 97% use air travel as their means of transport and the majority choose to stay in hotels (70%), followed by campsites (15%) and other tourist accommodation (9%). This tourist spends an average of 6 nights in the destination, one of the highest, and three out of ten contract a package tour to travel to Catalonia, which indicates the importance of intermediation in this market and its progression.
The Irish market ranks as the eighth largest international market for destinations in the Girona area. In the last five years it has recorded an upward trend, only slowed down by the pandemic, which is in line with the increase in direct air connections between four Irish airports (Cork, Shannon, Knock and Dublin) and the Girona airport.
According to data from Eurecat (TDS), 23,708 Irish visitors arrived in 2019, generating 77,387 overnight stays in regulated establishments in the Girona region. In 2024, 57,179 Irish visitors and 181,181 overnight stays were recorded. Both figures are up by 80% compared to 2019.
With partial figures for the 2025 tourism season (from January to August), the Girona area received 49,213 Irish tourists, 30% more than in the same period in 2024, and recorded 178,612 overnight stays, 59% more. May, June, July and August saw the highest influx of Irish visitors to the destination. The most noteworthy figure is the average daily expenditure, 240 euros per person, which is higher than the average for international tourists.
