Published: Friday, 25th June, 2010 1:45pm

Survey finds Offaly fails to attract domestic tourists

A recent survey of people who plan to holiday in Ireland has shown that no-one is picking Offaly as a destination this year.

Of those who are holidaying in Ireland, a massive 72% say they are holidaying differently than last year. Sixty one per cent say this is due to financial reasons while 15% say it is due to the possibility of travel disruptions.Seventy three per cent of respondents who are holidaying in Ireland will stay in Kerry, Cork, Galway, Wexford, Donegal or Clare. The least popular Irish destinations are Down, Fermanagh, Laois, Offaly and Tyrone. No respondents have chosen to holiday in any of these 5 counties this year.

For those going abroad the main attractions were weather (35%), value for money (24%) and a change of scenery (23%). The most popular type of accommodation is hotel and self catering, with 70% of respondents opting to stay in either. The 3rd most popular accommodation type is staying with family and relatives (10%) with less than 10% opting to camp, stay in a hostel or B & B.Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said the survey showed that people were adjusting their holiday plans to match the economic climate, while also taking events such as the disruption caused by volcanic ash into account.

"As MyHome.ie has a wide range of properties available for holiday rental in Ireland and abroad, we were particularly interested to see the reasons people chose self catering accommodation. Over one third of all holidaymakers did so, and while cost was the number one reason (26%), this was closely followed by facilities (23%), because they viewed it as a home from home (17%) and location (16%)" she said.

Keegan also pointed out that the dominant role of the internet in holiday planning also jumped out from the survey. "Overall 70% of respondents booked their holiday via the internet (73% for those holidaying abroad, 65% for those holidaying in Ireland) The survey shows that 31% of people view the internet as the most popular resource for researching and choosing a holiday. This puts it ahead of personal experience (26%) and recommendations from family and friends (25%), with less than 6.5% using a travel agency for information" Keegan concluded.