Tourists agree – there’s no place like home!
Galway’s popularity as a destination for staycations is on the rise – new figures from the CSO show a 13.5% jump in trips to the city and county last year.
The latest Household Travel Survey from the Central Statistics Office shows Galway is now the second most popular destination for Irish holidaymakers, on a par with Cork.
And the Irish Hotels Federation has said there is a renewed confidence in the economy, which is helping drive stay-at-home travellers to Galway.
There were a total of 739,000 trips made to Galway City and County in 2013 – from a total of 7.1m made in the Republic.
The Galway figures are up 13.5% from 651,000 the previous year, 686,000 in 2011 and 737,000 in 2010.
Not surprisingly, Dublin recorded the largest amount of trips in 2013 at more than 1.3 million. However, the figures for the capital city were down around 3.5% on 2012.
For comparison, the figure for trips to Kerry was 671,000, up 10% from 610,000 in 2012.
The total number of nights spent by domestic travellers in Galway was more than 2.2 million – up 8% on the 2m recorded in 2012. In Dublin, the figure was 2.9m, while Kerry recorded 2.8m.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.