A NEW SURVEY on the spending habits of the Irish holidaymaker landed in the inboxes of the nation’s newsrooms today (news organisations just LOVE surveys, as you may already have realised).
It didn’t tell us anything we don’t already know: essentially that we love to buy drinks at the airport (and on the plane), we spend a great deal on new clothes for our trip, and we generally leave a tip after eating out.
The survey by travel website Expedia covered 24 countries in North & South America, Europe, Asia and Australia & New Zealand.
And while Europeans are the least likely to spend at the airport, the Irish tradition of arriving early and having a few pints before take-off means we buck that particular trend.
We’re are also some of the most likely Europeans to buy alcoholic drinks on a flight, along with Brits and Norwegians.
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In terms of outlay on a new holiday wardrobe, we’re also way out in front of our European neighbours.
The difference is significant too: 59 per cent of us head to the shops for new shorts and t-shirts, compared to a European average of 38 per cent (in fairness — they probably have more of an opportunity to wear holiday gear on a day-to-day basis).
Elsewhere, southern Europeans lead the continental league table in the personal grooming stakes, but we’re not too far behind.
The Italians are most likely to spend on haircuts and body hair removal before a holiday (3 in 10 doing so) followed by the Spanish (23 per cent) and the Irish (21 per cent).
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The survey also shows we’re pretty good tippers, with only 15 per cent of Irish holidaymakers admitting to not leaving a few euros on the table at the end of a meal.
That said (let’s be honest here) how much of that is down to us not being entirely certain of local customs and emptying our pockets of coins and fivers just to avoid potential embarrassment?
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