Irish people spent almost €1 billion last year on trips within Ireland, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office.
The statistics show that in 2003, Irish people spent €970.9 million on domestic trips, which is a 14.3 per cent increase on the €849.4 million spent in 2002.
Of that total, the amount spent on holidays grew by 14.8 per cent to €575.9million in 2003, up from €501.6million in 2002. The difference between the spend on trips and holidays is accounted for by expenditure on visits to family and business trips within Ireland.
Half the Irish adult population takes at least one break per year within Ireland, and some 60 per cent of all holidays taken here are by Irish people. Irish people went on a total of 6,657,000 domestic trips last year, an increase of 3.2 per cent on the 6,452,000 trips taken the year before.
However, this rate of growth is less than half the rate for international trips. There were 4,974,000 international trips taken last compared to 4,597,000 in the previous 12 months, which represents an increase of 8.2 per cent. Some 18.8 per cent of all international trips were for business reasons.
The South-West was the most popular domestic destination in 2003, recording 1,400,000 trips. The West of Ireland was the most popular domestic destination for Irish holidaymakers during the last quarter of 2003, followed by Dublin, with 286,000 and 276,000 trips respectively.
The South-East and the West were the most popular spots for Dubliners, accounting for 22.6 per cent and 19.3 per cent of their domestic trips respectively.
Almost 79 per cent of all international trips last year were to the other 14 European Union countries. The most popular foreign destination remained the United Kingdom. The number of trips to the rest of Europe, North America, Central and South America and Asia grew, while trips to Africa and Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Oceania fell.
The statistics were welcomed by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, who said the budget for Fáilte Ireland's current Discover Ireland campaign has been increased by 20 per cent to €3.3 million this year.
"The programmes of Fáilte Ireland and the Regional Tourism Authorities have successfully tapped into the potential of the Ireland market, particularly in increasing the number of short breaks throughout Ireland," he said. "We will continue working to ensure growth in this market and strong regional distribution of visitors."
