Irish people spend over a billion euro on holidaying in Ireland, it was revealed today.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office showed tens of thousands of Irish people spent €1.1 billion, which is 6.8 per cent more in Ireland than the previous year.
Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism John O'Donoghue
Domestic spending combined with overseas tourism revenue of over €4 billion last year meant that the tourism industry was now valued at over €5.1 billionn a year.
Over 7 million domestic trips were taken with at least one overnight stay during 2004, up from 6.6 million the previous year.
There were over 3.1 million domestic holiday trips in 2004 - which was a rise on the 2.9 million taken in 2003.
New figures from the CSO showed there were 608,000 domestic holiday trips taken during the last three months of 2004, an increase of 12 per cent on the same period in 2003. However, the number of domestic business trips dropped by 15% to 149,000.
Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism John O'Donoghue said the domestic market had always been a stable lifeline for the industry.
"When you consider that nearly 40 per cent of the Irish population took a holiday at home in 2004, there is good reason for confidence in relation to the competitiveness of Ireland's tourism product," he said.
Mr O'Donoghue said he was optimistic for the further growth of the domestic tourism market. He said €125 million was being spent on the promotion of the tourism industry this year, with a €3 million home marketing campaign from Fáilte Ireland.