American dream captivates tourists

THE US is the most desirable destination for Irish tourists, a survey shows.

In second place is South Africa, while Italy is the favourite continental destination.

The poll was based on around 500 interviews with people who attended the Holiday World Experience at the RDS in Dublin last month.

Compiled by the Dublin Institute of Technology's Tourism Research Centre for Irish travel magazine Abroad, the results threw up a few surprises.

Abroad editor and publisher Michael Collins said he was amazed the US came out on top.

He expected Spain or Portugal to take the number one slot, especially with the uncertainty over America's plans for a war with Iraq. The US also topped two recent British polls.

People said they spent their best ever holiday in the US while others put it on the top slot of their wish list.

Not surprising, however, was how popular South Africa is with Ireland's globetrotters.

Mr Collins said: "It is a holiday destination that we constantly get asked about. It is a dream trip that more and more people want to go on."

Mr Collins went to South Africa for the first time over Christmas and was amazed at how many Irish people joined him on the connecting flight from Heathrow.

Australia and New Zealand are also high on the best holiday scale.

A surprise entry at number seven was Croatia. Mr Collins did a bit a reading to find out why it was so popular and discovered it had 1,800km of pristine coastline and 1,100 islands.

"That's a really good reason to go somewhere," he said.

Britain did not feature highly, despite being our nearest neighbour but Mr Collins believes people are missing out.

"There is a lot to see besides London in Britain. We found there were around 30 air routes between the two islands and it is less expensive once you travel beyond London," he said.

The Abroad chief is off to Cuba next week, somewhere he longed to travel to for years.

He said; "Fidel Castro will pass on sometime soon and when he does the country, which is so reminiscent of the fifties, will change overnight."

A BBC holiday programme 50 Places to see Before you Die put The Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Florida, South Island (New Zealand) and Cape Town as the top five places everyone should see in their lifetime.