Irish people going abroad more

Irish people made 1.5 million trips abroad in the first three months of this year, figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office show.

Spain and Britain were the most travelled-to destinations, accounting for more than half of all foreign travel.

As well as embarking on more trips, Irish travellers are also spending more when they go abroad.

Expenditure on international trips increased by 22 per cent (€250 million) in the first quarter of the year in comparison to the same period in 2006.

The amount spent rose from €1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2006 to €1.36 billion in the same period of this year.

The number of international holiday trips taken in the first quarter of 2007 increased by 22 per cent on the same period in 2006, but international business trips decreased by 5 per cent.

Holidays at home also remain popular with an 11.3 per cent increase, which means more than 1.5 million trips are being taken in Ireland.

"I am very pleased to see that our domestic holiday business is continuing to experience strong growth . . . more and more Irish people are choosing to holiday at home," Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Séamus Brennan said.

The southwest was the most visited region here in the first quarter of the year with 304,000 trips.

Not surprisingly, the highest level of expenditure came in the Dublin region where some €59 million was spent.

The number of domestic holiday trips taken in the first quarter of the year resulted in an encouraging associated revenue increase of more than 39 per cent.

"Growth in revenue has been experienced across all regions with particularly strong growth in the regions," Mr Brennan said.

The figures showed that middle-aged people were taking the most trips away.

The 50-59 age group had the largest percentage increase in both international and domestic trips with 62 per cent more international and 83 per cent more domestic trips taken than in the same period in 2006.

This age group also took more trips both internationally and domestically, 26 and 24 per cent respectively, than any other age group in the first quarter of the year.

In contrast, the 30-39 age group took 30 per cent fewer international trips and 35 per cent fewer domestic trips than in the same period of 2006.