Some €28 million more left the State in the first six months of the year, through Irish people taking holidays abroad, than was spent by foreign visitors to Ireland, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Irish tourists spent €1,816 million outside the State up to the end of June, while visitors to Ireland brought in €1,788 million. The shortfall represents a vast improvement on the first six months of 2003 when €110 million more left the State than was brought in.
However, Fáilte Ireland said the figures do not represent a fall-off in Irish tourism, but a large increase in the number of Irish people taking foreign holidays. "It's not a big worry for us. Irish people are taking more than one holiday a year and typically will take a long holiday abroad and maybe one or two short breaks in Ireland. The home holiday industry is very healthy."
An increase in Irish people travelling abroad had a positive impact on the standards of "home tourism", he added.
"When Irish people enjoy holidays abroad they come back and make the same demands on home holidays, which is very healthy for the industry. Travel broadens the mind and the contacts Irish people make abroad are very important because that helps to bring more tourists in."
The CSO figures from the second quarter of the year, show that Irish people made just over 8 per cent more visits abroad than for the same period last year. The number of people heading to the US was almost 13 per cent higher, travel to Britain was 8.3 per cent higher, while European travel was up 7.8 per cent on the period from April to June last year. Some 3.4 per cent more foreign tourists took Irish holidays from April to June this year.
European visitors accounted for an 8.9 per cent increase and 8.3 per cent came from the US and Canada. The only decrease on April to June last year was in British visitors. Some 3.3 per cent fewer British tourists took holidays in Ireland in the second quarter of this year.
Fáilte Ireland welcomed the increase in visitor numbers. However, not all businesses were benefiting, said Mr Brown.
"Our concern from the feedback we get is that the sectoral distribution is not even. I don't think everybody who reads these figures is going to be able to identify with them. Anecdotally we hear that people in urban areas and particularly Dublin, are doing better than rural operators."
