A fifth of domestic summer holidays booked online

A FIFTH of all domestic summer holidays are booked online, figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday revealed.

The CSO said some 496,000 Irish holidaymakers who stayed in Ireland last summer arranged their break through the internet — up from 393,000 the previous year.

The latest figures showed 2.5 million people took their vacation on the island during the third quarter of 2007 — up 6% on the previous year — generating €594 million.

Trips to the southern and eastern regions rose 9% to 1.7 million, with the border, midland and western counties recording a marginal increase with 748,000 trips.

Meanwhile, more than 1.8 million international trips were made by Irish holidaymakers last summer, spending about €2.4bn.

Sun seekers who headed to Spain accounted for a quarter of all international trips, with Britain attracting 21% of holidaymakers, followed by France, 13%, and North America, 8%.

The figures were released as a €3m overseas marketing plan for the Shannon Airport Catchment Area was unveiled.

Designed to address the challenges to the region post Open Skies, the initiative features a new campaign which will highlight the many attractions of the western regions from Kerry to Donegal.

Discover Ireland’s Wonderful West boasts the ease of direct access from many gateway cities, the good value fares, and inclusive packages available, as well as showcasing a range of compelling offers from local industry.

The new campaign will focus mainly on the US market which is the most lucrative in terms of spend and length of stay, where €2.4m of the budget will be spent on advertising.

The other main focus of the marketing programme will be Britain, with a spend of €600,000.

Paul O’Toole, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said 2008 would be a challenging year, “Global economic uncertainty, the weak dollar and a softening in consumer confidence, generally, all make for a more difficult business environment.

“Every year brings new challenges and I am confident that working in close partnership with the industry we can overcome these hurdles.”