The downward trend in the economy has become evident in spending on travel, with growth in the number of domestic trips last year at less than half that in 2007.
To the end of September, spending growth on domestic travel was also down by 2 per cent, compared to an increase of 17 per cent in the same period the previous year.
According to the Central Statistics Office, the decline was "considerable" last year.
The number of domestic trips taken by Irish residents was up by just 4 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period the previous year, according to the CSO's latest Household Travel Survey.
And the growth in the number of trips to the third quarter in 2008 was less than half that in 2007. The CSO said spending growth was up almost 17 per cent in 2007, compared to a fall of 2 per cent in 2008.
The CSO said domestic trips to the end of the third quarter totalled 6,262,000, up 4.2 per cent on the same period in 2007.
To the end of September in 2008, travellers spent 20,925,000 nights away, which was down by 1.8 per cent from 2007. Total expenditure fell by 2 per cent to €1,199.2 million.
For the quarter, spending on domestic travel, at €592.8 million, was slightly down on the third quarter in 2007.
There were some 2.54 million domestic trips between July and September, while the number of international trips was up by 3.5 per cent to nearly 2.5 million.
According to the CSO, travellers inside Ireland favoured shorter trips in the third quarter.
Trips lasting from one to three nights were up by 12.6 per cent to 1,691,000 while those of longer duration fell by almost 10 per cent to 853,000.
Total holiday trips remained “virtually unchanged” at 1,579,000 while business trips and those visiting friends and relatives increased by an average of 10.6 per cent, the CSO said.
For domestic trips, expenditure on holidays fell by 3 per cent to €446.3 million, while that on business trips increased by 9.7 per cent to €35.2 million.
Expenditure on trips spent visiting friends and relatives increased by 2 per cent to €66.5 million.
In international travel, Irish residents took 2,471,000 international trips in quarter three 2008, up 3.5 per cent from the corresponding period in 2007.
Holiday trips were up by 3.6 per cent to 1,874,000, while business trips fell by 8.5 per cent to 130,000.
Spending by Irish residents on foreign trips was €2,421 million in quarter three 2008 and this was up slightly on the same period in 2007. Expenditure on holiday trips increased “very marginally” to €1,943 million, while that for business trips was up 8.3 per cent to €166.4 million.
Travellers spent €214.9 million visiting friends and relatives and this was down by just over 9 per cent from quarter three 2007.
The number of trips spent visiting friends and relatives remained almost unchanged at 346,000, the CSO said.
While the number of nights spent on holidays remained virtually unchanged, those on business trips increased by over a fifth. The overall number of nights spent on trips increased by 2.4 per cent to 23,485,000.