South of the country most popular as more Irish residents take domestic holidays
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the most popular destination for domestic overnight trips was the South (Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford).
Irish residents spent €3.1bn on overnight trips in Ireland last year with the southern region being the most popular destination.
New Central Statistics Office data shows that Irish residents took 14.3 million domestic overnight trips in 2023. This is an increase from the 13.3 million domestic overnight trips in 2022 costing €2.9bn.
The most common reason for domestic overnight trips last year was for a holiday, at 45% of total journeys. Visits to friends or relatives was the second most common reason for overnight domestic trips in 2023 at 40%.
There were 12.6m outbound overnight trips taken by Irish residents in 2023 where total expenditure amounted to €12.9bn. These trips accounted for almost 80 million bed nights.
Irish residents took 2.9 million outbound overnight trips in October, November and December, with over a third of these (38%) to a UK (including Northern Ireland) destination.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the most popular destination for domestic overnight trips was the South (Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford).
The figures were released on Friday in the CSO’s Household Travel Survey Quarter 4 (Q4) and Year 2023.
Irish residents spent €3.1 billion on domestic overnight trips in 2023https://t.co/pfOHFSSQ1g#CSOIreland #Ireland #Tourism #Travel #Holidays #LoveIreland #OverseasTravel #AirAndSeaTravel #Aviation #InboundTourism #HouseholdTravel #TravelSurvey i pic.twitter.com/QSaYXLnBvS
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Aaron Costello, statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said: “The figures offer insights on domestic and international travel by Irish residents in the months of October, November, and December (Q4) 2023 and the full year results.
"Irish residents took 14.3 million domestic overnight trips and 12.6 million outbound overnight trips in 2023. Total domestic nights decreased slightly at 34 million in 2023, compared with 34.2m in 2022.
"In 2023, Irish residents took 15.4 million domestic same-day visits and 2 million outbound same-day visits. Expenditure amounted to €717m on domestic same-day visits in 2023 which was down from the 2022 figure of €856m.”
For the last quarter of 2023, the number of domestic overnight trips was 11% higher than in the same period in 2022, Mr Costello said, while the total number of outbound overnight trips rose by 27% when compared with the same quarter in 2022.
"Expenditure also increased in Q4 2023, up 28% for domestic overnight trips and 52% for outbound overnight trips when compared with Q4 2022.
"In Q4 2023 the Southern region (Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Cork, and Kerry) accounted for most domestic overnight trips at 42%.
"The next most popular regions were Eastern and Midlands (Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, and Laois) at 36%, and Northern and Western region (Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan, Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) at 22%. This follows a similar pattern to Q4 2022, where the Southern region made up most domestic overnight trips (42%)."
