Mass exodus for f irst summer bank holiday
MORE people than ever are booking last-minute getaway breaks, the head of the travel industry body has said.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the skies, seas and roads this weekend for the first summer bank holiday of the year.
Hotels across the country also reported they were fully booked for the long weekend.
And while there was some availability in Dublin, the cheapest room in Jury’s Inn on Parnell Street last night would set you back at least €480, and that’s without breakfast.
Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said almost 180,000 people will fly out of Dublin between Friday and tomorrow and passenger numbers have returned to around 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
Paul Hackett, President of the Irish Travel Agents Association, reported a surge in bookings for foreign holidays in recent weeks after demand dropped significantly in March, coinciding with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Consumer confidence was only barely recovering with regard to holidays and all of a sudden it was knocked again. None of us knew at the end of February what was going to happen with Ukraine.’
Mr Hackett, who owns Click&Go travel agency, believes as people got to grips with the situation – and good value began to appear on the market again – they decided, ‘We’re still going to have a holiday.’
He added: ‘What we saw in April was a real rush in last-minute booking – a very strong trend towards booking within two to four weeks of travel. Right through April, we were seeing massive volumes booking for May, and we’re expecting to see really high volumes booking in May, to travel in May.’
He expects this trend will continue into June and for trading to be at around 80% of 2019’s levels by the end of a busy summer.
‘Our research is telling us there’s something like 50% of people that have not yet booked for 2022. To be in that position on the first of May, to have nearly one in two people not booked, is quite stark.’
Spain and Portugal remain the most popular destinations for Irish tourists, while recent route upgrades have seen increased travel to Greece, Italy, and the Portuguese island Madeira.
After several chaotic weeks in Dublin airport that saw long security queues causing many to miss flights, waiting times have been almost back to normal in recent days.
Alongside the exodus out of the country, the domestic hospitality sector received a welcome boost with many hotels reporting they were fully booked this weekend.
All 83 rooms at the five-star Ashford Castle in Co. Mayo, which range from €875 for a deluxe room to €5,775 for a presidential suite, were fully booked this weekend, as were the 98 rooms and suites in the Culloden Estate and Spa in Holywood outside Belfast.