A new holiday survey has found that threats of industrial action by airline staff have a serious impact on where people choose to go on holiday.
The survey found that the threat of airline strikes would dissuade more than 4 out of 10 people (44%) from going abroad for their holiday.
The survey of over 1,700 people was carried out by leading property website MyHome.ie.
The findings comes after Aer Lingus said the threat of strike action by cabin crew later this month – now called off – will hit operating profits by between 10 to 20%.
Despite those fears the survey found 47% of people intended going abroad this year for their main holiday, a rise of 2.5% on last year. Twenty three per cent, down 3% on last year, said they would be staying in Ireland.
There was also an increase of over 2% in the number of people who said they would be holidaying both in Ireland and abroad (19.4%) while the number of people who said they won’t be taking any holiday this year fell by two percentage points to 10%,
Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said the general economic uplift was reflected in greater consumer confidence.
“More people are going abroad, people are opting for longer holidays and more people are opting for hotel accommodation. These are all positive indicators of increasing confidence.
Of course the impact of the recession and new taxes are still very evident with a third of people saying they are holidaying differently this year because their financial circumstances had disimproved. This is still a high figure but it is down 8% from last year. Again while 24% of staycationers said they were doing so for financial reasons and would usually go abroad, that figure is down over 3% from last year” she said.
Ms Keegan said there was good news for domestic tourism in the findings with a clear majority saying they believed the recession had led to better holiday pricing in Ireland.
“Over two thirds - 67% - believe the downturn has led to better value holidays here in Ireland. With regard to holiday home rentals, over 41% believe it has led to better value as opposed to 11% who believe rentals have become more expensive. We have over 4,000 Irish holiday homes on our website and over 6,500 foreign ones, so there is no lack of choice for anyone considering the self catering route” Ms Keegan concluded.
