Irish residents spent more than €8 billion on foreign trips last year
Holidays Travelled Last 5 On Million Lawless/pa Year Picture: Brian Abroad 6 Wire
Irish residents spent over €8 billion on foreign trips last year compared to just over €2 billion on domestic trips, new Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show.
The majority of domestic and foreign trips taken last year were for holidays, with more than 5.8 million Irish people opting to holiday in Ireland last year and over 5.6 million travelling abroad.
Those staycationing in the country spent around €1.3 billion in 2019, while those visiting friends or relatives in the country spent €372 million.
In total, Irish residents took over 11.6 million domestic trips last year, an increase of 6.4% on the year before.
Irish residents took 21 million overnight trips in 2019https://t.co/00vdOXGYFB #CSOIreland #Ireland #Tourism #Travel #Holidays #LoveIreland #OverseasTravel #HouseholdTravelSurvey pic.twitter.com/osVSl4Tk0I
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) September 30, 2020
Each trip had an average duration of 2.5 nights, with the average trip duration during the summer months of July, August and September rising slightly to 3.3 nights.
Hotels remained a popular choice among domestic travellers with 4.6 million Irish residents opting to stay in a hotel for their trip last year. 4.1 million stayed with family and friends.
Almost 9.4 million outbound trips were undertaken by Irish residents in 2019, amounting to a total of 66.9 million bed nights overseas.
Almost three quarters (74.5%) of these bed nights were within the European Union, with the average length of stay in EU countries 6.2 nights.
The United Kingdom and Spain remain the most popular destinations with Irish travellers with the UK accounting for more than 3 million trips abroad, followed by Spain at 1.9 million trips last year.
The US and Canada accounted for 584 million trips, with Irish travellers spending approximately 13.6 nights in these regions.
Irish residents who stayed in hotel accommodation abroad accounted for 23.3 million nights in 2019, while those staying in self-catering/rented house accounted for 16.6 million nights.