"The more experience you have of package holidays, the more you know what to expect," says Ms Tina Leonard, manager of the European Consumer Centre.

Higher expectations may contribute to a rising number of consumer complaints relating to the travel sector but has over familiarity with holidays in the sun killed off the traditional, two-week package holiday in the Mediterranean for some seasoned tourists?

Mr Dermot Mulligan of Abbey Travel says there has been a definite increase in holidays with itineraries that are tailor-made for clients' needs.

"People have been on a lot of package holidays and they want something different. This is especially the case with couples. Families still tend to opt for package holidays."

This year Abbey Travel has decided to issue three brochures, each one dedicated to one of its specialist destination countries - France, Spain and Italy. Instead of producing separate brochures for its package holiday products and special itinerary holidays, both options will be presented side-by-side to consumers.

The popularity of holidays in France and Italy is "creeping up", according to Mr Mulligan.

Cheap flight offers from low-budget airlines also help make short-term or weekend city breaks seem attractive, especially for couples, who would find it difficult to arrange longer stretches of time off work or who might not want to use up valuable paid vacation time in one block of 14 days.

"There is an increasing trend toward the one-week holiday," says Mr Brendan Moran, chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association.

"The two-week holiday is still the speciality but we find an increasing amount of people are taking one week and then another week somewhere else, so there is a double lot of holidays."

Mr Aidan Murray of Castleknock Travel agrees, citing the rise of the winter sun holiday market as evidence of the tendency of Irish workers to spread their holidays more evenly throughout the year.

In some cases, tour operators may only offer week-long packages.

"There may be some restrictions at Christmas and other times when the market would be more geared to one-week more than two-week holidays. The product offering would be one week only because that's what people want," says Mr Moran.

However, apart from the trend toward more short-term travelling, Mr Moran sees no significant change in the type of holidays Irish people are choosing.

"The Mediterranean is still as popular as ever, although I see France taking off big time now as well. The short trip is essential.

"People want to get there quickly. They want the two-and-a-half-hour flight, not the long-haul flight."

Flight destination indicates to Mr Murray that there has been no real move away from package holidays.

"There may be about 100 chartered flights every week out of Dublin in the summer. Those operators that charter the aircraft have the accommodation to match the seats and can organise local tour operators to meet holidaymakers and provide a transfer service from the airport to the hotels. They don't want people saying 'I want the seat only'."

Although there has been a "substantial improvement" in facilities, road structures, cuisine and standards of accommodation on the Continent, according to Mr Moran, the sex-and-drugs image of some resorts might act as a turn-off for older tourists and families, who search instead for upmarket destinations that are unlikely to be the subject of a Sky One documentary.

The potential loss of the family market has not gone unnoticed.

Earlier this year, the tourism minister for the Balearics announced a new "green tax" for visitors in order to protect the islands from "cheap, destructive" tourism, while there are fears within the Cypriot tourist industry that the much-hyped, clubbing-friendly resort of Ayia Napa will attract the kind of seedy reputation that Ibiza is trying to shake off.

Each year, a new or revived resort becomes fashionable - next year, the small Greek island of Zakynthos will be offered to Irish tourists for the first time - but the bulk of Irish tourists still favour destinations such as the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, Portugal and Turkey.

Long-haul, tailor-made holidays to the US, Australia or the Far East are "very small fry" compared to this traditional package holiday market, which, Mr Murray says, still accounts for 90 per cent of business.