Irish people are among the least likely of Europeans to holiday at home, according to a survey of planned holiday destinations for 2010.

Just 14% of Irish people said they intended to take their main holiday at home this year as against almost two thirds (64%) of Spaniards, who intend to take their annual break within their own country. Over half of Italians (56%) and French people (50%) also intend to holiday at home. Perhaps more worryingly, fewer than 1% of people from other countries said they planned to take a long holiday in Ireland.

The grim figures come just a week after Fáilte Ireland launched a €4m TV, cinema and newspaper advertising campaign – 'The Fun Starts Here' – to encourage more Irish people to holiday at home.

But only people from Luxembourg (2%) and Malta (7%) are less likely to holiday at home than Irish people, according to the Eurobarometer survey.

Spain is the most popular overseas holiday destination for Irish people (16%), followed by the US at 9%.

A larger proportion of our neighbours in the UK will holiday at home this year (23%) but like us, the next two most popular destinations are Spain (10%) and the US (8%).

Spain is the most popular destination for all European holiday makers at 8.3%, followed by Italy (6.1%), France (5.8%) and the US (4.5%).

Ireland barely registers (0.7%) as the preferred destination for Europeans planning a long holiday this year, but even at that low figure Ireland is still ranked as the 21st most popular worldwide destination – the same as Morocco (0.7%) and more than India at 0.5%.

A Fáilte Ireland spokes­man cast some doubt over the EU figures, which he said concerned the main, long holiday break and not short breaks.

A survey to match the Fáilte Ireland campaign found that 61% of Irish people intend to take a short break in Ireland in 2010, the spokesman said.

During the boom, Irish people tended to go abroad for short city breaks. But the recession has seen most people cut back on short foreign trips and take them at home instead, said the spokesman. He admitted that when it comes to the main holiday of the year Irish people do tend to go in search of the sun.

However, given the trend for Irish people to leave holidays till the last minute, the EU figures could be quite different by autumn, he said.

"The last two summers have been very bad but if there is an improvement this summer then a lot more people will holiday at home."