Ireland’s favourite sun holiday destination? That’ll be Spain, with some 1.3 million Irish predicted to visit in 2014.
New figures release by the Spanish Statistical Institute and the Spanish Tourism Office reveal that 1,074,000 Irish travelled to Spain between January and September.
The figure is expected to rise to 1.3 million by the end of 2014.
Taken together, more Irish tourists have holidayed in Spain this year than in France, Italy, Portugal and Germany combined, placing it second only to the UK in terms of Irish overseas visits.
The most popular Spanish destinations for Irish holidaymakers include the Canary Islands, Andalucía, Cataluña, Valencia and the Balearics.
Together, these account for nine out of ten Irish visits, with the Canary Islands alone attracting almost 335,000 visitors so far in 2014.
Unsurprisingly, June and July are the most popular months for travel.
However, the figures also show that 145,000 Irish residents visited Spain in September, itself up 8.5pc on the same month last year.
“We’re having our best year since 2009,” said Gonzalo Ceballos, Director of the Spanish Tourism office in Ireland. He thanked the Irish public, travel agents and the trade for making Spain their No.1 sun holiday destination.
So why is Spain such a red-hot favourite?
“We believe Irish people travel not just due to a cultural affinity with Spain, but because it’s great value for money,” Mr. Ceballos said.
Although most Irish visitors travel to the traditional resorts, he added, more and more are exploring city breaks, wine routes and the Camino de Santiago – a network of pilgrimage routes ending in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela.
The rain in Spain (or lack of it) is undoubtedly a factor too. The country boasts over 3,000 beaches and 664 Blue Flags along its 8,000km coastline.
21pc of all Irish travel expenditure was spent on Spain in 2013, the Spanish Tourism Office added.
