Tripped out: Irish took off five million times in 2003

IRISH property owners in Spain are driving the surge in the number of foreign holidays we take each year, the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) said yesterday.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show we took almost five million international trips last year up 8% on 2002 and spent e4.1 billion abroad.

International travel grew almost four times higher than domestic breaks.