GALWAY HAS TAKEN the title of favourite Irish holiday destination, knocking Kerry off the top spot.

When asked which county was their favourite to holiday in, 28 per cent of respondents said Galway and 23 per cent said Kerry, a survey by property website MyHome.ie revealed. Former front-runner Kerry received 24 per cent of the vote last year.

Meanwhile, Cork maintained its third place position with 12 per cent, Wexford received 7 per cent and Donegal and Mayo both received 6 per cent.

Clare made the top six with 5 per cent of the vote, and Dublin came seventh place with 3 per cent. However, Dublin received mixed-messages: when asked which location was the ‘least appealing’ for a holiday, Dublin received the most votes.

Other counties which proved unappealing to holiday-makers were Longford, Laois, Offaly, Limerick, Cavan and Carlow.

Unsurprisingly, there was a strong link between respondents’ favourite counties and the locations they intended to visit this year: Galway came out top on 19 per cent, Kerry came in second on 13 per cent and Cork fell from second to third on 11 per cent. Meanwhile, Wexford received 8 per cent, Donegal  7 per cent and Dublin 4 per cent.

A small number of respondents said they were planning a trip to counties like Louth, Longford, Offaly and Monaghan, while few were planning trips to Northern Ireland.

“It looks as if all roads are leading West this year. Galway is a beautiful county but it also knows how to market itself and events such as the Galway Volvo Ocean Race have really helped to raise its profile while Race week and the Arts Festival keep it up there,” said Managing Director Angela Keegan.

Some 78 per cent of those surveyed said they believed there was better value available for holidays in Ireland now than in previous years, and a further 53 per cent said they thought holiday home rental prices were now better value.

Overall, the survey showed that 28 per cent of Irish people planned to holiday at home this year, while 39 per cent planned to go abroad.

Just over half said their holiday would be a week or less, 39 per cent said it would be between 8 to 14 days, while 9 per cent said they would be on holiday for 15 days or more.

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