Sun holidays sacrosanct but punters forgo city breaks

THE recession gloom is still lingering, but we are slowly beginning to book summer holidays, with extra city breaks becoming a thing of the past, according to tour operators.

Sunway and Budget Travel say holiday bookings picked up after the budget as people then “knew what they were at”.

One operator said that the “two weeks in the sun seem to be sacrosanct for many Irish families” and, if they have to economise, they are cancelling shopping and golfing weekend trips. E-bookers say, in previous years, their research had shown that one in three Irish people went on four foreign breaks a year.