Recession affects Irish holidaymakers budget

The recent economic crisis in Ireland had resulted to a family friendly spin-off, according to the Central Statistics Office’s Household Travel Survey.

With many Irish travellers felt the pinch of recession, most holidaymakers took the opportunity to tour around the country to visit friends and relatives instead. Latest figures from CSO also revealed a surge in staycations and a drop on the number of Irish tourists abroad.

The survey revealed that domestic travels to family and friends from April to June boosted by 17 per cent to 649,000 over the same months last year, while business trips dropped by 4.6 per cent to 145,000. In addition, people spent 13 per cent more nights away from their homes during the second quarter of this year, amounting to about six million surveyed Irish residents, compared with 2008.

However, research figures showed that many people also control their spending during their travels. In the second quarter of 2009, the overall spending on domestic travels slipped by 2.4 per cent from last year to €314.4 million. Even when visiting relatives and friends, travellers’ spending fell around 20 per cent at €33.8 million, lesser compared to the same period in 2008.

Meanwhile, the survey also exposed that few Irish holidaymakers took overseas trips this year than the last and that more people travelled with tight budgets. Comparing to 2008, the number of abroad travels taken by Irish residents plunged by 6.5 per cent to about 1.9 million in this year’s second quarter. Spending while on holiday abroad had also decreased by 14 per cent to €1.1 billion.