THE CITY OF the Tribes is the Irish city in which most Irish people would like to ring in the New Year, according to a new survey.

Twenty-nine per cent of people surveyed across a range of ages from 18 to 55 years for Hotels.com said that Galway would be their ideal New Year’s Eve domestic destination. Dublin comes second, at 21 per cent, for this year’s celebrations even though the much touted The Gathering 2013 festival is due to kick off there with a New Year’s Eve extravaganza on College Green. (See details of that event here).

The Gathering New Year special is also getting blanket coverage from the State broadcaster, with the fireworks, concert and ‘People’ Procession of Light’ being broadcast or aired on RTÉ One, RTÉ Radio 1 and on RTÉ.ie. The Lonely Planet guide this year chose Dublin as one of its five top destinations for New Year’s Eve. (The other four include Prague, the New South Wales coast, the French Alps and Chiang Mai in Thailand.)

The Hotels.com survey said that the third most popular destination in Ireland for NYE is Donegal , at 12 per cent.

Almost one if five people (18 per cent) said they planned to take a break away (home or abroad) around New Year’s Eve, with 16 per cent of those going on holiday to visit family and friends, and 14 per cent attending an occasion such as a wedding.

During the whole festive season, over half of people planned to do some travelling in Ireland (58 per cent), and 21 per cent said they were taking a break outside of Ireland.

Outside of the domestic market, those surveyed said they would most like to spend New Year’s Eve in New York (44 per cent), followed by 27 per cent in Sydney and 12 per cent in Edinburgh for the Hogmanay traditional celebration there.

Ireland tops Fodor’s travel guide list for 2013>
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