THE POLISH community in Ireland will account for 20 per cent of online bookings for flights from Ireland to foreign destinations this summer, according to a new travel survey.
This puts Poland in second place only to Spain (21 per cent) as the most visited country in Europe by people flying from Ireland.
The US remains a popular destination with 8.9 per cent of Irish travellers crossing the Atlantic, with the UK (8.9 per cent), France (7.6 per cent), Portugal (6.7 per cent) and Italy (5.3 per cent) also visited by significant numbers.
The survey, which covers flights departing 11 European countries, shows that only 4.6 per cent of travellers nominated Ireland as their destination. This figure is less than the UK (13.8 per cent) and France (9.4 per cent) but higher than Portugal (4.3 per cent).
The Polish are also the Europeans who take the longest breaks, according to the figures released by Mondial Assistance, which tracked the information through online bookings of air travel insurance for people travelling between June and September.
The average Polish traveller will be away for 13 days, while an Irish person travels for 11 days on average. Both figures are above the European average of 10 days, with the Swedish, at eight days, taking the shortest breaks.
Spain is the most popular country to visit among all Europeans, with 25.3 per cent of travellers surveyed visiting there. It is also the country where people are most likely to remain at home, with 35 per cent of Spanish people holidaying in their own country.
The French also have their own country as their first-choice destination, as do the Italians, although Spain is a strong second choice location for holidays for both of these nationalities.
The figures are based on a sample of 418,000 people who took out flight insurance when booking their flights. The information, which was analysed by Occurrence, a market study group, examines trends among people who are designated as "leisure travellers". This includes people who take a break of three days or more, travel over a weekend or in groups of at least three.
Edel Mannion, business development manager of Mondial Assistance, says in the case of travel to the UK from Ireland there might be a tendency for some people not to take travel insurance for shorter trips so the figures for that destination might not reflect the actual situation as accurately as in the case of other destinations.
"We are reflecting figures which come from air travel insurance, and we cannot speak for other travellers but obviously there are many Irish who will go to the UK and France by ferry which our figures will not capture. But generally a lot of what we see is along expected lines, with the traditional holiday destinations as popular as ever.
"Of course, the striking figure in the Irish context is Poland, which shows the significance of the numbers from that country living here."