Domestic overnight trips up 7% in first nine months of 2023

Irish residents took 4.5 million domestic overnight trips between July and September 2023 and 4 million outbound travel trips in the period, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The domestic total for the third quarter is unchanged compared to the same quarter in 2022, although figures for the first nine months of the year show a 7 per cent rise in trips.

The outbound total cannot be directly compared to previous numbers, the CSO said, as it has ended its overseas travel data series and recalibrated how it conducts the survey. One-third of the outbound trips in the third quarter of last year were to a destination in the UK, it said.

The main reason for taking domestic overnight trips was for holidays (52 per cent) while visiting friends or relatives accounted for 39 per cent. Only one in 25 domestic trips was for business purposes (4 per cent).

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Total expenditure on domestic overnight trips in the third quarter amounted to €1.1 billion with those on holiday spending €742 million of this and those visiting friends or relatives spending €225 million.

Nights spent in Irish hotels by Irish residents amounted to 2.5 million in the third quarter of 2023, while nights spent in self-catering or rented accommodation arrived at 2.7 million.

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“The figures highlight the continued growth in domestic travel in the first nine months of 2023 following the disruption caused by Covid-19 restrictions,” said CSO statistician Brendan Curtin.

“When compared with results from the same period in 2022, the number of domestic overnight trips taken in January to September 2023 was 7 per cent higher, and 22 per cent more than in the first three quarters of 2019.”

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