50% of Irish travel agents have seen an increase in bookings compared to the same period in 2015, according to the latest Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) quarterly survey.
These results correlate with the recent CSO figures which revealed that the total number of Irish residents’ trips overseas for the first five months of 2016 increased by 7.8% when compared with last year.
The results of the survey show that the Irish travel industry is continuing to prosper with 70% of travel agents surveyed seeing an increase in turnover for the second quarter of 2016 (April -June) compared to the same period in 2015.
The ITAA members survey also revealed that Spain is the most popular destination this summer, followed by Portugal and the USA. In 2015 1.68 million Irish residents travelled to Spain and this is set to rise to over 1.7 million in 2016.
VALUE FOR MONEY
When asked about the biggest travel trends in 2016 so far almost half of those surveyed named cruises.
‘Value for money’ was a requirement for many customers and, as a result, ‘all inclusive’ packages were high on peoples list of priorities.
This ‘value for money’, personal service and sense of security are the primary reasons that Irish travel agents see 60% of their business come from returning customers.
