Domestic tourists avoid overseas travel bans, snap up holiday accommodation

A woman rides her pony in Claddaghduff in the popular holiday region of Connemara. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Padraic Halpin

Up until late January Terry O’Toole was fielding a trickle of enquiries from Irish holidaymakers happy to settle for another summer at home in one of the cottages he manages in the scenic west coast region of Connemara.

But when a Government minister said on radio that it was very unlikely Irish people will be able to go on foreign holidays this summer, “the trickle became a torrent”.