More remaining in Ireland for holidays than last year

More Irish people are taking their holidays in Ireland this year while fewer are travelling to countries outside Europe, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

More than two million residents took trips in the Republic of Ireland during the first quarter of 2016, up almost 20 per cent from the same time last year.

The figures from the CSO’s household travel survey showed holidays accounted for almost half of the domestic trips taken.

Spending on domestic travel increased by €58 million compared with the same time last year, giving a total expenditure of €326.9 million.

Overall, the survey showed the travel abroad by Irish residents also increased, rising by 12.8 per cent in January to March this year compared with 2015, with a total of 1.5 million trips made.

The UK and Spain remain the most popular destinations for Irish travellers with 607,000 and 233,000 trips respectively.

Despite heightened concerns about terrorism and security, trips to countries in the European Union increased by 206,000 (18 per cent).

During the first three months of this year, an extra 35,000 Irish people visited France, an increase of 19,000 trips were made to Germany and visits to Portugal more than tripled from 10,000 to 34,000, compared with last year.

However, trips to Middle East and Asia were down by 24,000, a drop of 42 per cent, and visits to North America also declined by 10,000, dropping from 99,000 in 2015 to 89,000 in 2016.

Overall, spending on foreign travel increased as Irish people spent an extra €184 million on trips abroad, up 18 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2015.

The majority of the increased spending was from people on holidays.

Revision

Patsy King, a statistician for the CSO, said the method used in calculating the figures for this report had changed to be more accurate. A revision in figures had been done back to 2012.

These revisions showed about 20 per cent more domestic trips were taken each year than previously estimated, however, the new method of calculations had little impact on outbound trips.

“Analysis of the data showed that more older people were completing the household travel survey questionnaire and that younger age categories were under-represented,” she said.

“As a consequence, the CSO decided to review how the results are weighted by age group.”

Ms King said the changes introduced included a weighting system based on population information and broken down by gender, age group and region.

Shaun Quinn, chief executive of Fáilte Ireland, said the first quarter performance for domestic tourism was “very welcome”.

“We need a robust home holiday market to sustain many tourism businesses all year round,” he said.

“I am confident that the domestic market will continue to play its part throughout the rest of 2016.”