Domestic trips down by 2%
1,457,000 domestic trips with at least one overnight stay were taken in the first quarter of 2006, compared with 1,490,000 trips in Q1 2005, a decrease of 2%.
There were 691,000 domestic holiday trips in Q1 2006, an increase of 20% on the same quarter in 2005.
Domestic trips taken to visit friends or relatives fell by 12% on the same period in 2005.
The total number of bednights spent on domestic trips in Q1 2006 fell by 11% when compared with Q1 2005.
There were 28% fewer bednights spent in guesthouses and B&Bs and 1% fewer in hotels and conference centres.
The number of nights spent in people’s own holiday homes grew by 21%.
Estimated expenditure on domestic trips grew by 16% from €187.7m in Q1 2005 to €217.4m in Q1 2006.
Expenditure on domestic holiday trips grew by 31% on Q1 2005, reflecting increases in the number of holiday trips.
The number of nights spent on domestic holiday trips grew by 2%.
1,397,000 international trips with at least one overnight were taken in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 1,212,000 in the same quarter of 2005, an increase of 15%.
The number of trips to elsewhere in Europe, North America and Africa all showed increases.
While the number of international holiday trips taken in the first quarter of 2006 increased by 18% on the same period in 2005, the number of international trips to visit friends or relatives increased by 26%.
The average length of stay of international trips fell to 6.5 nights from an average of seven nights in the same period of 2005.
The total number of bednights spent on international trips grew by 8% to more than 9.1 million nights.
Overall estimated expenditure on international trips grew from €949.1m in Q1 2005 to €1.1bn in Q1 2006, an increase of 18%.
Expenditure on international holiday trips increased by 19% on the same period.
