At the end of 2021, we conducted a survey asking people about their plans and hopes for the next 12 months.

We receieved over 1,500 responses to build a large snapshot of what our readers are looking forward to in 2022.

Here is a breakdown of the results, with some slides showcasing the data:

Climate Change

The environment was on people’s minds for the next year. Most will be adapoting sustainability changes including eating locally-produced foods (17%), choosing greener utilities (11%), while 22% plan on minimising their plastic packaging use and 21% will try to reuse bags and containers.

Hitting the road was also a factor in helping the environment, 7% will use electric or hybrid cars, and 7% will head onto public transport. Meanwhile 14% of commuters plan on cycling or walking some of their journey to help climate change.

Holidaying in 2022

In a bid to recover from the past couple of years, 67% respondents are planning to jet off to the sun, while 3% plan a boat trip. For the best of both worlds a plane and boat trip are the plan for 6% of respondents.

When choosing their destination, 37% are planning a holiday of a week or more with friends or partner, families came next with 30% planning a family holiday of a week or more.

City breaks are the plan of action for 25%, while 8% are eyeing-up a family long weekend break.

Sure, going away is nice, but 23% plan on staying in Ireland, with 47% of respondents planning several short Irish breaks across the year.

Just the one short break is the plan for 36% of (clearly workaholic) respondents, while the lucky 4% are planning a few long breaks, or one long break (4%).

Hotel stays are the best bet for 51%, while 10% would opt for a private bed and breakfast.

A self-sufficient 19% want to go for an Airbnb, and 15% of respondents are willing to stay with family.

Post-Covid

With hopes that Covid is on the wane, people plan on making the most of things opening back up again; 39% plan on returning to pubs and restaurants with the same frequency, while 24% would like to go out more than before.

The relative safety of Outdoor events was a blessing during 2020 and ’21, which is why 47% plan on continuing the amount of outdoor music events and 23% intend on increasing their outdoor events.

Meanwhile, 66% planned on picking up where they left off on indoor events, while 22% planned on increasing their indoor music events in 2022.

Lastly, 48% of cinemagoers expect to visit the cinema the same amount as pre-Covid while 29% plan on hitting the cinema even more often.

The highest amount (40%) thought that a trip to the big screen every 2-3 months would be enough, while 30% thought once a month would be plenty. The cinephiles out there (5%) planned on going once a week at least.

That’s a lot of popcorn!

Genre-wise, thrillers (14%) were the most highly-anticipated, followed by comedy (13%), action/adventure (12%), drama (12%) and superhero films (10%).

Lower down the voting were sci-fi (9%), rom-coms (7%), family movies (6%), horror (5%), animation (4%), biopic (4%) and lastly musicals (4%).

When it comes to the influence on their cinemagoing, entertainment.ie reviews were highly-regarded with 41% saying entertainment.ie reviews influenced their decision and 41% saying they sometimes were influenced by reviews.

Word-of-mouth is still the biggest influence on our TV and film viewing, with 74% affected by a recommendation from a friend or family member, also influencing respondents’ watching habits was seeing trailers (58%), a project from their favoured cast or director (42%) and a positive review from a critic (36%).

Lastly, influencers only convinced 23% of respondents to see a film on their recommendation, so not very influencing at all.

If you’d like to receive or hear the research in entirety simply email our sales team on [email protected]