Household Travel Survey Quarter 1 2024

Key Findings

• Irish residents took 3 million domestic overnight trips in January, February, and March (Q1) 2024, an increase of 17% when compared with the same period in 2023 (2.6 million).

• Total expenditure on domestic overnight trips in Q1 2024 amounted to €576 million with those on holiday spending €327 million of this, while those visiting friends or relatives spent €150 million.

• The total number of nights spent on domestic overnight trips in Q1 2024 increased by 19% compared to Q1 2023.

• Irish residents took 2.5 million outbound overnight trips in Q1 2024, with over half of these trips (52%) to an EU destination.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 July 2024) released Household Travel Survey Quarter 1 (Q1) 2024.

Commenting on the release, Aaron Costello, Statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said: "The figures provide information on domestic and outbound travel by Irish residents in the months of January, February, and March (Q1) 2024.

The number of domestic overnight trips taken in Q1 2024 was 17% higher than in the same period in 2023. The main reason for taking domestic overnight trips in Q1 2024 was to visit friends or relatives (48%), followed by holidays (36%). Six percent of trips were undertaken for business purposes.

Expenditure on overnight domestic trips amounted to €576 million in the first three months of 2024.

The most popular region visited by Irish residents on overnight trips in Q1 2024 was the Southern region (Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Cork, and Kerry), accounting for 1.3 million trips. The Northern and Western region (Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan, Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) had the least number of trips (0.8 million trips).

The number of outbound overnight trips in Q1 2024 increased by 21% compared with the same period in 2023. The distribution of these trips was largely dominated by holiday purposes, accounting for 61% of the total. Visits to friends or relatives represented 21% of the trips, while business-related travel comprised 9%."

Editor's Note

From Q3 2022 outbound travel by Irish residents has been calibrated to the new CSO Inbound Tourism statistical series. Methodological advancements in that survey mean that current results are not directly comparable to the former CSO Overseas Travel series, on which outbound travel was calibrated up to Q2 2022. Therefore, there has been a technical break in the outbound travel time series and caution should be taken when comparing data from Q3 2022 and earlier periods. This change has had no impact on domestic travel results. For more information see the Background Notes.