Irish people are taking more holidays at home and aboad despite the gloomy economic outlook, according to travel figures for the first quarter of 2008 released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.
The number of domestic visits by Irish residents was up 17.2 per cent to 1,851,000 for the first quarter of 2008 from that of the previous year. The greater growth in holidays (15.1 per cent) and those visiting friends and relatives (23.4 per cent) accounted for most of this increase.
However, the €284.2 million spent by Irish residents on domestic trips for the first three months of 2008 was down slightly from the €288.9 million for the comparative quarter in 2007.
Holiday expenditure grew by 8.5 per cent to €181 million from the first quarter last year, but this was offset by reduced spending on business trips and those visiting friends and relatives.
There was an increase in international trips undertaken by Irish residents between January and March - 13.9 per cent on the comparative months for 2007. Holidays abroad showed the strongest growth, rising by 18.7 per cent to 1,218,000, and there was a rise of almost 25 per cent to 8,821,000 in the number of holiday nights.
Spending on international travel amounted to €1,594.5 million for the first quarter, up 17.1 per cent on 2007, with holiday expenditure showing an increase of 21.4 per cent to €1,132.2 million. There were smaller increases in spending on business trips and those visiting friends and relatives.
In terms of regions visited, Asia and the Middle East showed strong gains, with the number of trips increasing by 71 per cent to 53,000 from first quarter last year to 2008. The numbers visiting North America also rose, from 112,000 to 153,000.
Most of the European trips for the first quarter were to the United Kingdom (560,000), followed by Spain (312,000) and France (171,000).
Measuring the number of nights on domestic visits, the CSO found that of the 4,626 nights for the first quarter 2008, the majority of these were in the hotel/conference centre (1,726) and friends/relatives (1,652) categories. The average length of stay during trips in Ireland was 2.5 nights, rising to four among holiday home owners.
