Almost three-quarters of a million Irish residents travelled abroad on holiday in the first three months of this year, the Central Statistics Office revealed today.
Over 716,000 people vacationed abroad in the first three months of 2005 - a 23 per cent increase on the first quarter of last year.
The CSO's travel survey for the first three months of 2005 showed over 1,212,000 international trips, with at least one overnight stay, were taken - an increase of 143,000 visits on the same period in 2004.
There was a large increase in the number of people travelling to Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
International trips taken by Irish residents 70 years and over increased by 56 per cent on the first quarter of 2004, and trips by children up to 14-years-old increased by 22 per cent.
The amount of money spent on international trips grew from €800 in the first three months of 2004, to €949 million in the first quarter of 2005.
However, domestic trips by Irish residents dropped by 6 per cent. People made around 1,490,000 domestic trips, with an overnight stay, compared with 1,585,000 trips in the same period in 2004.
The number of domestic holiday trips increased by 1 per cent to 575,000 - while the number of bednights spent on domestic holiday trips grew by 6 per cent
The estimated expenditure on domestic trips dropped 5 per cent to €187.7 million.