Figures on domestic holidays released today show a fall in the number of nights spent in hotels, guest houses and B&Bs as more people use holiday homes.
The Central Statistics Office said there were just over 1.7 million domestic trips with at least one overnight stay in the final quarter of 2004. This was up 6% on the same period a year earlier, with holiday trips up 12% but business trips down 15%.
The total number of bednights spent on domestic trips was down 4%. The drop was 3% for guest houses and B&Bs and 8% for hotels and conference centres. The number of nights spent on people's own holiday homes jumped by 24%, however.
Spending on domestic trips also fell - to €206m from €225.3m a year earlier - with spending on business trips slumping by 36%.
Meanwhile the number of international trips grew by 11% to just over 1.2 million, though the average length of stay fell.
Separate preliminary figures from the CSO show that exports fell by 2% in February from January to €6,937m. The seasonally adjusted figures also show that imports dropped 3% to €4,255.
Final figures for January show that exports rose by 4% compared with the same month last year, with exports of medical and pharmaceutical products up 22%. Exports of computer equipment fell 9%.
Imports in January jumped by 9% compared with January 2004, with the value of petrol and related products imported rising 38%.
