Solo holidays surge as singles get the travel bug

Single holidays are on the rise with a surge in Irish travellers going solo over the past five years.

Fresh figures from the market giants, Euromonitor, show the number of Irish people travelling abroad alone has rocketed by more than 50% from just over 930,000 trips as the recession hit in 2009 to more than 1.4 million trips last year.

Research has shown that more and more people are clocking up the air miles alone especially when it comes to signing up to active and exotic trips such as walking holidays and African safaris.

The new Euromonitor figures also show that seven out of 10 Irish travellers are over-35s; with pensioners and over-50s taking two out of every five of the holidays last year. The report on Irish travel plans shows that foreign holidays taken by couples fell from a high of 3.1 million in 2009 to a low of 2.3 million getaways in 2012 but they have climbed back up to almost 2.6 million last year. It also noted that Irish people in their sixth decade are showing the biggest wanderlust in the population with 553,000 people aged between 50 and 65.

Alexander Goransson, research analyst at Euromonitor International, said Ireland isn’t alone in having majority of travellers hitting middle-age: “Ireland follows a similar trend to other European markets that (around) two-thirds of travellers are over 35. It’s the same also for Britain and Germany. The western European share of over-35s is a bit lower at 57%, but they’re still in the majority.”

Ireland has seen rising numbers of tourists jetting in over the past two years thanks to the strength of the dollar and sterling against the weak euro and the report says travel and tourism in Ireland will “flourish” in the coming years.

Meanwhile foreign tourists splashed out €525 million on shopping sprees in Ireland last year. Euromonitor noted that Ireland’s reputation for being an expensive destination is disappearing: “Ireland’s prices are increasingly competitive, and the destination is set to capitalise fully on this.

“This, allied with the comparative strength of sterling and dollar currencies against the euro makes Ireland even more attractive for travellers from two of its biggest source markets, the UK and US,” said Euromonitor. Cheap flights are also credited with bringing droves of tourists into the country on budget airlines like Ryanair while domestic tourism was up 3% in 2014. The report noted Irish holiday goers took more holidays at home last year and gave a glowing nod to Ireland’s “disproportionately huge” range of attractions “from world-class pubs and restaurants to historic and natural wonders”.