Released on: October 30, 2009, 5:15 am
Author: Hotels.com
Industry: Travel

Hotels.com revealed the results of a new survey which shows that, in the course of a generation, the number of countries visited by an Irish under-16 year old has doubled. The survey was conducted by Hotels.com through Rollercoaster.ie, Ireland’s leading website for parents.

While a child today will have visited an average of six different countries by the age of 16, their parents had visited an average of three countries by the same age - a 100% increase in travel in just one generation.

While the rise in popularity of European city and beach breaks has contributed to children from Ireland venturing overseas, today’s under-16s are also heading further afield. The Hotels.com research showed that 24% of children have been to America by their sixteenth birthday, whilst 5% have been to destinations in Asia and Australia. According to the research, almost every child in Ireland (98%) has made a trip to a European destination by the time they reach 16.

Alison Couper, Director of Communications at Hotels.com, said: “Irish children today are better travelled than ever with almost every under-16 year old experiencing countries abroad according to our research.

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