Irish People Spent Over €6 Billion On Overseas Trips In 2016

Irish people are spending fortunes on foreign holidays according to new figures.

The Central Statistics Office have today revealed that in 2016, Irish residents spent a total €6.539 billion on heading away overseas.

Of this total, €3.938 billion was spent on holidays, €1.1 million on business trips and €899 million on visiting friends or relatives.

Well for some, says you.

Other key findings were:

- Irish residents took almost 9.3 million domestic trips in 2016, an increase of 1.7% when compared with 2015.

- Total expenditure on domestic trips in 2016 amounted to €1,776 million.

- A total of 56.8 million bed nights were availed of by Irish residents travelling abroad in 2016. 75% of these bed nights were within the European Union.

- The average length of stay on outbound trips was 7.4 nights, varying from 6.4 nights within the European Union, 12.7 nights in North America and 22.3 nights in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.

We're all off to look for flights.