The number of Irish people holidaying overseas has exceeded the number of tourist visits to Ireland.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that in the first quarter of the year there were 1.57 million trips abroad by Irish residents while 1.47 million tourists visited the State.
Irish people are also spending significantly more, with €1.14 billion spent by Irish tourists compared with the €819 million spent by visitors to Ireland over the same period.
This is the first time since 1990 that Irish trips abroad have outstripped tourist visits into the country.
In the first quarter, visitors from Britain fell 6 per cent to 771,000 while visits from other European countries rose 33 per cent to 496,000 when compared with the first quarter 2006.
Visits by North Americans rose by 4 per cent to 156,000.