Irish Spend More Time Abroad In Fourth Quarter

The number of Irish people travelling abroad between October and December 2007 was 1,734,000, an increase of 13% on the same period in 2006.

The number of transatlantic trips grew by 23% compared with 2006 and trips to continental Europe increased by 16%.

Irish Visits abroad for "holiday, leisure or recreation" accounted for 65% of all the transatlantic trips taken.

There were 1,756,000 overseas visits to Ireland in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with 1,701,000 during the same period in 2006, an increase of 3%.

The number of overseas visits by residents of other European countries grew by 8% while overseas visits by residents of the USA and Canada grew by 6%.

The number of visits to Ireland by residents of Great Britain remained almost unchanged while visits by residents from other areas decreased by 3%.

The figures released by Ireland's Central Statistics Office also show that visits abroad to visit friends or relatives grew by 16%.

The number of business trips to Ireland also showed an increase of 6% compared to 2006.

There were 98,000 same-day trips to Ireland in the fourth quarter, of which 76,000 were made by residents of Britain. In the same period, there were 41,000 same-day trips abroad made by Irish residents.

The number of nights spent in the country by visitors to Ireland increased by 5% with the number of nights spent in hotels increasing by 14%, compared to the same period in 2006.