How we have spent our holiday cash

TOURISM TRENDS:A BLAST FROM the good travel times of the past came this week in the form of the Central Statistics Office's Tourism Trends 2007 report.

We spent 62.2 million nights abroad that year. The top six destinations were the UK (34 per cent), Spain (28 per cent), France (13 per cent), North America (11 per cent), Italy (8 per cent) and Portugal (6 per cent).

Our holiday travel boomed from just over two million trips in 2000 to 5.5 million in 2007; business travel and visits to relatives remained about the same.

We spent less time on holiday, though: an average of 7.9 nights per holiday compared with 9.4 nights in 2000. Throughout this decade there has been a growing trend for taking more breaks of shorter duration rather than one big holiday.

We took 7.8 million trips in 2007, including business travel. The age group with the most holidays under their belt that year? The 50-pluses, reversing the trend of 2000-2006, when the 20-49 age group took the most trips. In fact, the 20-49 age group travelled less in 2007 than they did in 2006 and 2005, probably reflecting the mortgage crunch.

Spending money on holiday is a given, but what do we spend it on? And how does our destination determine our spending? The report tells us that we spend the least on package tours to North America and Australia and the most on package tours to Central and South America and Africa. We spend most on food when we're visiting Europe and most on shopping, as you might expect, when we're visiting North America. Accommodation takes more of our travel budgets in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in Oceania. We also spent more there on excursions and transportation compared with other destinations, showing our adventurous spirit.