August pub spend up 4% – AIB
Spend in pubs, off-licences and restaurants rose 4% in August over July.
Allied Irish Bank’s spend data for August reveals that Kerry was the top spot for domestic Summer holidays this year, with Irish consumers choosing The Kingdom as their destination of choice over Galway and Cork, the second- and third-most popular choices.
Last year Cork was the country’s most popular destination for Irish visitors, followed by Kerry.
The hotel spend data for the Summer months of June, July and August reveal that Kerry was the top destination for visitors from the majority of counties each month. Other popular destinations for Irish people this Summer included Donegal and Dublin.
During August, those from Mayo spent the most in Dublin hotels – the same month both counties clashed in the All-Ireland Semi Final in Croke Park.
Data for the AIB Trend Spend report was compiled from AIB Debit and Credit card spend from just under 55 million transactions between the 1st and the 31st of August.
August Spend Trend Overview
Overall, consumer spend in August was down 1.5% on July, with contactless and chip-and-pin spend both down 5% respectively. However, online spend during August was up 4%, bucking the trend for the month.
Spend among all age groups was down during August, with the exception of under 25s where spending rose 4% over July. The biggest decrease came from those over 65 where month-on-month spend was down 4%.
Spend across other sectors during August was as follows:
| Sector | Increase / Decrease (On July) |
| Airline | +39% |
| Clothing | -3% |
| Electronics | -3% |
| Groceries | -9% |
| Hardware | -6% |
| Health & Beauty | -8% |
| Homewares | -4% |
| Hotels | -1% |
| Restaurants | +4% |
| Pubs & Off-Licences | +4% |
”Since the hospitality sector reopened a few months ago, we’ve seen a steady increase in spending by consumers across hotels, pubs and restaurants,” said John Brennan, Head of SME Banking at AIB, “As is evident by our Spend Trend report this month, Kerry was the place where the most consumers were spending money on hotels – pipping Galway and Cork to become Ireland’s top holiday destination this year. Elsewhere, we saw overall spend decrease this month when compared with July, with consumer goods sectors such as clothing, health and beauty and electronics all down.”
