The findings of a new survey point to optimism for the travel sector in 2026, with strong profitability and revenues.
86% of respondents of the Irish Travel Agents Association Annual Industry Barometer said their business made a profit last year.
Nearly half reported increased revenue, with 41% of businesses reporting year-on-year growth.
"Irish people want to go on holidays," said Clare Dunne, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA).
"We live on an island, we need to get off the island and people need to have something to look forward to with political uncertainty, economic downturn and bad news everywhere you turn," she said.
Political uncertainty was cited as the top concern by the majority (70%) of respondents, while 95% said they predict price increases on travel products for the year ahead.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Ms Dunne said payroll costs and pension auto enrolment are also concerns for travel agents as they do not quite know how the costs will hit them yet.
She also highlighted weather events as being an issue for the travel industry.
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"We look after people throughout, no matter what's happening, whether its IT outages or weather events. The travel industry is right at the outer rim of that, if something happens, we're generally the first to feel it," said Ms Dunne.
Recent CSO figures for December showed an increase of over 30% increase in tourist numbers and spending for December compared to the same period last year.
It said those figures coincided with significant growth in departing passenger numbers, particularly at Dublin Airports.
"The household survey showed 4.6 million outbound trips in the third quarter of last year, so that's very encouraging. In the full year last year, we had 2.9 million visitors to Spain alone, it's still our biggest market and the most popular destination from Ireland," said Ms Dunne.
