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More than 7.6 million trips abroad were made by residents of the State in 2016, up 7.8 per cent on the previous year, new figures show.
Irish residents spent over €6.5 billion last year on trips abroad, of which €3.9 billion was on holidays, €1.1 billion on business trips and almost €900 million visiting friends or relatives.
The average length of stay was 7.4 nights, varying from 6.4 nights within the European Union, 12.7 nights in North America and 22.3 nights in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.
The Central Statistics Office’s Household Travel Survey also found Irish residents took almost 9.3 million domestic trips in 2016, an increase of 1.7% when compared with 2015.
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Overseas travel by Irish residents accounted for some 56.8 bed nights, with three quarters of those spent within the European Union. Each trip had an average duration of 2.7 nights, resulting in 25.4 million bed nights.
In 2016, more than half (52 per cent) of all domestic trips were classified as holidays while over 3 million trips (32.7 per cent) were to visit friends or relatives.
Total expenditure on domestic trips in 2016 was almost €1.8 billion, with €1.1 billion of that accounted for by those on holidays.