Travel figures take off due to low-cost flights

HOLIDAYMAKERS and business travellers spent a record €1.3 billion on foreign travel in just three months this year thanks to the growing popularity of low-cost flights.

Between April and June, Irish holidaymakers and business travellers made 2,048,000 trips abroad, spending the biggest amount in any three-month period since records began.

Yesterday, the Irish Travel Agents’ Association (ITAA) said the rise in overseas trips was being fuelled by the growing availability of low-cost flights.

“Throughout this year travel (overseas) is up about 10% on last year and a significant contributor would be the growth in low-cost flights from Irish airports,” said ITAA chief executive Simon Nugent.

“Both Aer Lingus and Ryanair significantly increased capacity (on their flights) at the start of the year and this led to a surge in bookings in spring.”

The Central Statistics Office yesterday revealed a 27% increase in visits abroad by Irish residents for holidays, compared to April to June last year, with 1,252,000 breaks taken overseas.

Similarly, CSO figures showed a 17% hike in business travel to 245,000 trips, as well as a smaller rise at 7% to 425,000 for trips to see family and friends.

Going back to 2004, CSO figures show a growing trend for overseas travel by Irish residents to destinations like Britain, continental Europe as well as North America.

Likewise, the number of people visiting Ireland from overseas is also continuing to rise, with non-nationals making 2,138,000 trips here between April and June this year, up 1% on the same period last year.

Just over half the trips to Ireland were made by British residents while people from continental Europe accounted for 665,000 or 31% of visits from overseas. Americans accounted for 15% of visits.

On the financial side, tourism from overseas is continuing to generate a significant amount of money for the Irish economy, bringing in €1.29 billion between April and June this year.

The last time Ireland earned more from tourists than her residents spent abroad was between April and June 2004 when visitors here spent €1.11bn and we paid out €1.07bn overseas, a difference of €65m.