THE MONTH of August saw a drastic fall in the number of Irish trips overseas compared with the previous August. In August 2008, 29,900 Irish people travelled overseas, compared with 86,100 in August 2007, according to this week's CSO travel statistics.
It would seem that people were already anticipating a crunch and saving money in August by staying home - well before the economic meltdown had become official.
On the surface, the news had at first seemed relatively positive: overseas trips by Irish residents increased to 845,000 in the eight-month period from January to August, compared with 815,700 from January to August 2007. This included the halcyon days of last January to June, when the two or three holidays per year lifestyle still seemed reasonable.
Although the increase in overseas trips from January to August 2008 compared with 2007 represents 3.7 per cent, it is considerably lower than the increase between the same period in 2007 and 2006 - 13 per cent.
The statistics also reveal some interesting demographics. Women over the age of 50 are by far the most frequent overseas travellers, showing that "silver power" is as vibrant as ever.
Irish residents spent a total of €1.79 billion on foreign travel in the second quarter of 2008, up just over 4 per cent from the same period the previous year.
Holiday expenditure was down slightly at €1,28 billion . Expenditure on business trips increased by just over 16 per cent to €238.7 million, as did expenditure on visiting friends and relatives, which was up by 25.6 per cent at €198.9 million.
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