February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
For the first time, one student travel agency in Ireland has reported more students traveling to the West Coast over New York or Boston, which have traditionally been the most popular destination cities for Irish J1 students.
This year, the U.S. consulate in Dublin issued 7,780 J1 visas, an increase of around 50 percent on last year’s figure of 5,171. This increase reflects the emerging popularity of West Coast cities, such as San Francisco, San Diego and, most recently, Hawaii.
“The biggest concentration of people this year went to San Diego,” according to Trevor Ryan, Manager of SAYIT, a Cork-based student travel agency. His company issued almost 2,000 J1 visas this year.
“Santa Barbara was also popular — it seems to be the new hotspot. 150 to 170 went to Hawaii. That would have been zero a few years ago.”
According to Ryan, numbers of Irish students traveling to New York, Boston and Chicago are falling in tandem with the West Coast’s increasing popularity.
“Boston and New York made up about 60 percent, which is a lot, but the numbers going to the West have increased enormously in recent years,” according to Ryan.
“Chicago has more or less died — less than 100 went there this year.”
USIT, Ireland’s largest student travel company, issued “somewhere between four and four and a half thousand visas,” according to its J1 coordinator Seona MacR