Irish people's outbound trips down in first quarter

Almost 1.2 million outbound trips were undertaken by Irish residents in the first quarter of the year, a decrease of almost 9 percent over the same period last year, according to official figures on Monday.
The figures released from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed a total of 8.2 million bed nights were availed of by Irish residents traveling abroad in the first quarter.
The average length of stay on outbound trips was 7 nights. The United Kingdom remains the most popular destination for travel in terms of number of trips, followed by Spain, North America and France.
The CSO figures also showed holidays accounted for less than half of all outbound trips, while visiting friends or relatives accounted for 29 percent of all trips. Visitors who stayed in hotel accommodation accounted for 3.2 million nights while those staying with family and friends accounted for 2.8 million nights.
Irish residents spent a total of 941 million euros (1.29 billion U.S. dollars) on outbound trips in the first quarter, of which 473 million euros were spent on holidays, 192 million euros on business trips and 186 million euros on visiting friends or relatives.
Meanwhile, the number of domestic trips made by Irish residents during the three month period rose 8.5 percent to 1.4 million. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollars)