Dramatic rise in travel figures skewed by an early Easter

CSO STATISTICS: THE TRAVEL BUSINESS is celebrating the latest CSO figures, which showed a dramatic 18

CSO STATISTICS:THE TRAVEL BUSINESS is celebrating the latest CSO figures, which showed a dramatic 18.7 per cent increase in holiday bookings in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the first quarter of 2007.

Falcon Travel, for example, declared itself "inundated" and warned that it was nearing capacity for bookings in August.

But there was a sting in the tale: Easter - which was far earlier this year than in years past. Bookings for Easter travel were included in the first-quarter figures when usually they would not be.

So anyone testing the health of the tourism business by comparing January to March 2008 with January to March 2007 should keep this in mind, the CSO reminded readers in a footnote to its research.

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Meanwhile, business travel decreased by 10 per cent, perhaps an indication that after the property market stalled last Christmas, businesses began cutting back. While holiday trips abroad showed impressive growth, the airline industry as a whole was less robust, according to figures released on Thursday by Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

"Growth has slowed," stated a spokesperson.

The 5 per cent increase in passengers using the airport during the first six months of 2008 will level out to produce a 12-month increase of just 3 per cent, or 800,000 passengers, far less than the Ryanair-driven boom of 2.7 million additional passengers in 2006.

Travel to and from Europe increased by 48 per cent, and travel to the US showed a 36 per cent increase, while domestic air travel rose by just 3 per cent, according to the DAA.

Travel to the Middle East; Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt; and Cape Town, in South Africa, rose by four per cent, with more than 130,000 passengers travelling to those destinations in the first six months of the year.

The CSO found a 71 per cent increase in travel to the Middle East and Asia in the first three months of the year, confirming the area's growing holiday market.

Commenting on the six-month traffic figures, a DAA spokesperson said: "At this stage of the year, it is difficult to predict full-year patterns."

The number of international trips undertaken by Irish residents in the first quarter of 2008 was 1.8 million, up 13.9 per cent on the same period in 2007.

Kate Holmquist

Kate Holmquist

The late Kate Holmquist was an Irish Times journalist