WE’RE SUNNY SPENDERS
POPULAR holiday hotspots such as Greece and Portugal have seen a surge of spending by Irish tourists, who have set off in their hordes in search of sunshine.
Recent queues at Dublin Airport illustrated the pent-up demand for holidays, and now an analysis of debit and credit card spending shows where the money went.
Bank of Ireland said that Greece had seen the biggest splurge, with spending in that country by the bank’s customers rising by a massive 162% in April compared with the previous month. Spending in Portugal was up 106%, Turkey by 100%, Spain by 45% and Italy by 38%, while an extra 8% was spent in travel agencies as people planned future trips.
However, cost-of-living pressures were blamed for an overall fall of 2% in spending levels from March. Bank of Ireland reported a drop in monthly spending across the social and retail sectors in particular.
Shoppers cut back on groceries by 4%, spent 3% less on retail generally and 4% less on social outings. Clothing and sporting goods still held appeal for shoppers, with a 9% increase in spending on both, while health and beauty spas saw a drop of 3%.
Jilly Clarkin from Bank of Ireland said: ‘April’s spending painted a mixed picture across the economy, with social and retail spending levels declining, while spending in a number of European countries and in travel agents rose.’
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus’s CEO has said fares at the airline will increase due to rising fuel prices. Lynne Embleton said fuel costs are a large part of the overall cost base of an airline, typically making up 25-30%.
‘When fuel price goes up it is inevitable eventually that will be passed through to customers,’ added Ms Embleton.
‘Spending painted mixed picture’