IRISH PEOPLE spent more than €1.15 billion on international travel in the fourth quarter of 2009 according to the Central Statistics Office.
International travel by Irish residents decreased by 15.5 per cent on the same period in 2008.
Business travel expenditure increased by almost 15 per cent to €190 million while expenditure on holiday travel fell by more than a quarter to €677.6 million.
Some €206.7 million was spent by Irish people visiting friends and relatives abroad, a decrease of 6.8 per cent.
Most travel was within Europe, with more than 1 million trips made between October and December 2009, figures from the Household Travel Survey show.
Britain was the most visited country followed by Spain, to which 249,000 trips were made.
Some 146,000 trips were made by Irish residents to North America for the same period.
Irish residents aged 19 and under made 189,000 trips abroad during the fourth quarter, staying a total of 1.2 million nights in foreign countries.
Expenditure on domestic travel declined 8.3 per cent to €317.9 million during the last three months of 2009. Spending on holidays in Ireland fell almost 17 per cent to €154.9 million, while that on business and visiting friends and relatives also fell by an average of almost 13 per cent.
The number of domestic trips taken in the fourth quarter of 2009 fell by 2.5 per cent to 2,026,000 from the same period in 2008.
But while the number of domestic trips fell during that time, the percentage of trips taken within the State was greater than the percentage taken overseas. This was welcomed by Fáilte Ireland, the development body for Irish tourism.
Its spokesman Alex Connolly said domestic trips accounted for 53 per cent of all trips last year versus 47 per cent of overseas trips. Domestic trips accounted for 51 per cent of all trips in 2008 and 50 per cent in 2007. “That’s very encouraging news for the home holiday market,” he said.
Last year, travellers spent just over 10 per cent less on domestic trips, at almost €1.39 billion, and of this, spending on holiday travel was down 18 per cent to €843.3 million.