New figures from the Central Statistics Office show the continued growth in domestic travel in the first nine months of 2023 after the disruption caused by Covid-19 restrictions the previous two years.
The CSO said the number of domestic overnight trips taken in January to September 2023 was 7% higher on the number in 2022. They were also 22% higher compared to the first three quarters of 2019.
Today's figures show that Irish residents took 4.5 million domestic overnight trips in July, August and September of 2023, which was unchanged when compared with the same three month period in 2022.
Total expenditure on domestic overnight trips in the third quarter of last year amounted to €1.1 billion with those on holiday spending €742m of this, while those visiting friends or relatives spent €225m.
A total of 2.5 million nights were spent in hotels here by Irish residents in the third quarter of last year, while nights spent in self-catering or rented accommodation totalled 2.7 million.
The main reason for taking domestic overnight trips in the three month period under review was for holidays (52%), while visiting friends or relatives accounted for 39%. One in 25 domestic trips were for business purposes.
The CSO said that 52% of domestic overnight trips were taken in the Southern region, while the least number of trips were taken to the Eastern and Midland region (23%).
Meanwhile, expenditure on overnight domestic trips amounted to €2.4 billion in the first nine months of 2023, which was 41% higher than in the same time in 2019.
In the first nine months of 2023, Irish residents also took 11.3 million domestic same-day visits and expenditure amounted to €500m.
Today's CSO figures also reveal that Irish residents took 4 million outbound overnight trips in the third quarter. 34% of those trips were to a UK destination.
