As consumers flocked to Ratheniska, Co. Laois last month, the National Ploughing Championships 2024 drove the biggest spend for tourism and exhibits so far this year, according to the monthly spend trend by AIB.
Ticket sales were led by customers from counties: Cork; Tipperary; Limerick; Galway; and Wexford at the annual event.
Overall spending was slightly down compared to August, by around 2%, as the summer period came to an end. However, between the ploughing championships and Debs season, there were some spikes in spending during the month.
Debs season saw highest spending days for clothing rental on Monday 30 and Thursday 26 respectively; and the highest spending day for cosmetics, on Tuesday 10.
The hospitality sector had a quieter month, with hotel spend down 19%, restaurant spend down 12% and pub spend down 11%. Despite this, restaurants had their best day of the year so far on Saturday, September 28.
Electric vehicle charging spend increased 5% in September compared to the previous month and it increased 56% compared to September 2023.
Data provided by AIB features one of the most comprehensive and accurate data sets on consumer spending in Ireland.
AIB spend trend
Head of consumer at AIB, Adrian Moynihan said: “While overall spend was slightly down compared to August, this is to be expected given the end of the summer period and an associated drop in hospitality spend in particular.
“The National Ploughing Championships did however buck this trend and drove the biggest spend for tourism and exhibits so far this year.
“As well as the ploughing championships, September is also synonymous for back-to-school and this can be seen throughout the spend data this month.”
The monthly data was compiled from 71 million debit and credit card transactions in store and online during September 2024 and has been anonymised and aggregated.