Trips abroad on the back-burner as foreign holidays down 10%

FOREIGN holidays are being put on the back-burner as the recession continues to affect the numbers travelling abroad.

With people focusing on maintaining jobs, the numbers of people travelling abroad has continued to fall for the first four months of this year.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that Irish trips abroad were down to 2,119,200 between January and April, a drop of 10.5% compared with the same period last year. Trips to Ireland fell by 6.3% to 2,010,000.

The figures, which do not offer a breakdown of the destinations travelled to by Irish residents, represent a reversal of the 7.9% growth in trips abroad in the first four months of 2008.

Data for the month of April shows that trips abroad by Irish people during the month of April fell by 4.2% to 579,400 compared with the same month last year.

Overseas trips to Ireland increased slightly to 607,800 in April compared with the same month last year.

However, this would appear to reflect the fact that Easter fell in April of this year compared with March of last year.

Trips to Ireland by British nationals has also continued to fall. In April they fell by 9,800 (3.3%). However, this was more than offset by an increase of 13,300 (6.5%) to 219,300 in trips by residents of other European countries.

Chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association Simon Nugent said the figures came as “no great surprise”.

“These figures are in line with what we’ve been anticipating and bears out what we are seeing in the industry,” he said.

Mr Nugent said given the economic environment, it was not surprising that people were not travelling abroad in the same numbers as previously.

“It is not surprising given the economic climate. However, media reports have said that people would be cutting back dramatically on overseas travel. That is simply not borne out by these figures,” he said.

The association chief said he expected the numbers travelling abroad would continue to fall into the summer months, but said that talk of a “meltdown” in overseas travel was premature.

“It has been a late booking year so it’s a bit hard to predict the level of take-up. Our best assessment is that it will be down again. However, we are not talking about a meltdown. It’s been a predictable step back,” he said.