Tourists trips to Midlands on the up for 2008
The number of domestic trips made to the Border, Midlands and West region during the first nine months of 2008 increased marginally compared to the same period of 2007. There were 828,000 trips made to the region during the three months of July, August and September in 2008, the highest number of trips out of the first three quarters of the year and an increase of 80,000 trips compared to the third quarter of 2007. Last year, the first quarter also had a higher number of trips made to the region, while the second quarter was down by almost 100 trips. The numbers for the last quarter of 2008 are not yet available. The amount of money spent in the Border, Midland and Western region during 2008 looks like it could remain on a similar level to the previous year, or even slightly increase. In 2007 a total of €482.2 million was spent in the region, while the total for the first nine months of last year was at €378 million. The main reason for visiting the BMW region was to take a holiday, while the second most popular reason for visiting the region was to see family or friends. The average stay here was also longer if the visitors came for holidays alone, with visitors spending the second-longest time here if they came to visit friends. The average length of a stay here was four nights during the third quarter of 2008, which was the same for the same period in 2007. The annual average for 2007 was 3.2 nights. In the first quarter of 2008, the average stay was 2.5 nights and was 3.1 nights in the second quarter. The third most popular reason for a visit to the Midlands was for business with single overnight stays the most common. There was also an increase in the number of nights spent in the region, which is a good indicator that more money was being spent in the region. In the third quarter of 2007 visitors spent a total of 2,990 nights in the region, while during the same period in 2008, visitors spent more nights here at 3,285. The increase in domestic trips last summer may have been a sign that people were beginning to tighten their belts as the recession took hold. And it"s not just visitors to the Midlands who are having the fun. Those living in the region are also getting out and about with over 1,621,000 trips made by people living in this region domestically in 2007 in total and 1,452,000 trips made in the first nine months of 2008. Meanwhile, people from the BMW region spent over 4,000,000 nights on their holidays in Ireland in the first nine months of 2008. BMW residents went on 1,319,000 international trips during the first nine months of 2008 and in total spent 10,609,000 nights abroad. The figures were released by the Central Statistics Office last week.