THE number of Irish people travelling to Turkey has fallen amid terrorist attacks and an uncertain political arena in once-popular tourist hotspots.
New figures from Euromonitor International show our nearest neighbours in the UK are still the No 1 destination for Irish people with 2.4 million making the hop across the Irish Sea in 2016.
Spain and Portugal are among the most popular destinations with the numbers going to Portugal almost doubling in the last decade.
Visitors to Turkey dropped by more than a fifth last year from 93,800 in 2015 to 73,000 in the wake of the failed military coup.
While Irish tourists to Egypt fell by a quarter over the last four years from 18,400 in 2012 to 14,000 last year.
Euromonitor also noted that rising disposable incomes in the wake of the recent recession is fuelling growth in outbound travel.
“Irish people are becoming more adventurous, after suffering years of negative economic sentiment and austerity, which has made many of them keen to maximise any opportunity to travel abroad”, noted the report.
The hotspots:
- UK – 2.4 million
- Spain – 1.8 million
- France – 497,000
- US – 463,000
- Portugal 353,000
- Italy – 351,000
- Germany – 198,000
- Netherlands – 173,000
- Poland – 147,000
- Greece – 76,000