Irish Daily Mail

Only one in six plan holiday abroad this year

- By James Ward

THE number of Irish residents expecting to travel internatio­nally this year has fallen dramatical­ly since the third wave of the coronaviru­s pandemic.

Just one six (15.7%) now say they intend to travel abroad this year, but the figure has fallen sharply since Ireland entered its third lockdown in December.

A new study by the Central Statistics Office has also shown that people are broadly positive about taking the Covid19 vaccine, with 87% saying they would take it next week if available.

In a February survey, fewer than one in six people, 15.7%, said they anticipate­d their next internatio­nal flight would be sometime in 2021. That is compared to slightly more than half, 50.6%, who thought they would travel internatio­nally this year when asked the same question last November.

Almost three quarters of those asked – 73.3% – said they would take a holiday overseas in a typical year prior to the onset of Covid-19.

People are more likely now to take a holiday of at least a week in Ireland than they were prior to the pandemic. Almost two-fifths of respondent­s, or 39.4%, said they intend to take at least a week-long holiday in the Republic of Ireland in 2021. That is compared to fewer than a third, 30.9%, who said they would opt for a staycation before Covid arrived on these shores. On attitudes towards Covid

87% of those who have not yet received a jab said they would do so next week if it was available. On vaccine concerns, 46.3% said they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ concerned by the long wait for a jab. Some 21.3% said they were worried about the length of time that they will be protected against Covid-19 by the vaccine. And 20.7% said they were concerned about the effectiven­ess of the vaccine against different strains of the virus. Only 5.4% of this cohort said they do not want to get the vaccine.

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