Domestic overnight trips increase three-fold as post-Covid recovery continues

More than three times as many domestic overnight trips were taken by Irish residents between April and June this year, compared to the same period last year, new figures show.

Some 3.4 million domestic overnight trips were taken by Irish residents in the second quarter of this year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data showed.

It compares to one million domestic overnight trips in the same period last year.

Some 760 million euro was spent on these trips between April and June, about 480 million euro of which was spent by those on holidays.

Some 1.8 million domestic overnight trips were taken as staycations, about one million trips were taken to visit friends/relatives, about 200,000 trips were taken for business purposes and about 350,000 more trips were taken for “other” reasons.

The latest figures also showed there were 2.2 million international overnight trips taken by Irish residents, with a total spend of about 2.3 billion euro.

CSO statistician Brendan Curtin said: “When combined with results from January to March (Q1) 2022, the data demonstrates the ongoing recovery in travel after the disruption caused by Covid-19 restrictions.

“The number of domestic overnight trips taken in the first half of 2022 was 12% higher than in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, while the total number of outbound overnight trips remained lower (-24%).”

The CSO also included data on ‘same-day visits’ for the first time. It shows that 6.6 million domestic same-day visits were taken in the first half of the year.

“In the period January to June 2022, Irish residents took 6.6 million domestic same-day visits and 0.6 million outbound same-day visits,” he said.

“Expenditure amounted to 344 million euro on domestic same-day visits and 51 million euro on outbound same-day visits in the first half of 2022.”