The latest AIB Spend Trend report shows that September saw three of the biggest selling days of the year for tourism and exhibits - September 16, 17 and 18 - as thousands attended the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co Laois
AIB noted that ticket sales were led by customers from Cork, Tipperary, Limerick, Galway and Wexford at the annual event - the largest of its kind in the world.
September also saw the highest spending days for clothing rental on Monday 30 and Thursday 26 respectively as Debs season gets underway.
Tuesday September 10 was also the highest spending day for cosmetics with AIB customers spending €529,000 on cosmetics on that one day alone - 89% of which was online.
Meanwhile, football gaming fans drove the highest spend on digital games this year on Friday 20, the day EA Sports FC 25 went on presale. The second-best day was Friday 27, the day the game went on general sale.
But the hospitality sector had a quieter month, with hotel spend down 19%, restaurant spend down 12% and pub spend down 11% as families returned to work and school after the summer holidays.
Despite this, AIB said that restaurants had their best day of the year so far on Saturday September 28.
AIB said its monthly data is compiled from 71 million debit and credit card transactions in store and online during September and has been anonymised and aggregated.
The September Spend Trend report shows that overall spending decreased by about 2%.
AIB noted that electric vehicle charging spend increased 5% in September compared to the previous month and it jumped by 56% compared to the same time last year.
It also said that airline travel spend increased 9%, while electronic spend rose by 10%, likely driven by back to school and college spend.
Adrian Moynihan, Head of Consumer at AIB, said that 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.
"AIB's robust data provides unique insights into customer spend patterns and also helps businesses to better understand customer behaviours and plan their activities accordingly," he added.
