Irish people spent almost 30 per cent less on trips abroad in the first quarter of this year than in the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Trips to foreign countries fell in respect of almost every destination with only three areas seeing an increase in Irish visitors. The numbers of visitors to Britain and New Zealand/Australia increased modestly with 5.8 per cent and 7.1 per cent more Irish holidaymakers respectively.
The only place to see a substantial increase in Irish visitors was Northern Ireland which had 36.3 per cent more trips from residents of the State in the first three months of this year than in the same period of 2008. Northern Ireland is categorised as a foreign destination by the CSO for the purposes of compiling statistics.
When Irish people did take winter breaks, they were on average spending less this year than last. In the first quarter of this year 23.6 per cent fewer holidays were taken than last year, but 28.1 per cent less money was spent on those holidays than in the first quarter of last year.
However in the main people were not replacing their foreign trip with a holiday at home. Although the decline was not as great as with foreign destinations, the number of domestic trips was down by 17 per cent and the number of nights spent on holiday was down by 27 per cent.
Spending on Irish holidays was also down on the first quarter. Irish people spent almost 25 per cent less on their home holidays in the first quarter of 2009 than the same period last year.
