Number of trips abroad plummets by 13%

THE number of trips abroad taken by Irish people has plummeted by more than 13%, while overseas trips to Ireland have fallen by more than 5%, according to latest figures.

Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday showed the number of trips abroad made by Irish residents fell by 13.4% to 474,000 in February, compared with 547,600 recorded in the same month last year.

February also saw a significant decline in the number of people visiting Ireland from overseas.

In total, overseas trips to Ireland in February were down 5.5% to 445,200 from the same month in 2008. Visits by British people fell by 15,000, a drop of about 6% to 244,800.

Like recent months, this drop contributed mostly to the overall decline in visits to Ireland. The CSO figures show the number of visits from North America have dropped by 20% to 37,500 from 54,300. In 2009 so far, trips abroad by Irish people are down by almost 11% to 976,100.

This shows a complete reversal of the growth rate achieved in the early months of 2008, when the figures for January to March showed Irish trips abroad were up by 12%.

Overseas trips to Ireland are down 4.3% to 869,400 compared with an increase of almost 1% in 2008. The only positive in the figures is that the number of trips from Europe has increased by 1% to 149,100.

Chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association Simon Nugent said the drop in trips out of Ireland came as no surprise.

“The figures from last January and February are really the dying months of stellar growth in the numbers travelling out of Ireland. They are not a surprise given the massive peak in 2008,” he said.

Mr Nugent said the figures were almost in line with 2007, which was an extremely good year for numbers travelling abroad.

Fine Gael tourism spokesperson Olivia Mitchell said the sharp decline in the number of visits to Ireland was “potentially catastrophic”.

“In normal economic times falling numbers of visitors to Ireland would be very worrying. In the current economic climate, they are potentially catastrophic.

“Ireland needs a vibrant, strong, tourism sector, but the figures out from the CSO today make for very sobering reading,” she said. The FG tourism spokesperson said the drop in numbers of those visiting from North America was particularly worrying and said the Government had assisted the decline in the tourism sector.