Arrivals from overseas down 12% on pre-pandemic levels

Kenneth Fox

The number of overseas travellers are down 12 per cent on pre-pandemic levels in July 2022, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Despite the number of arrivals not reaching levels before the pandemic, there was an increase of 380,700 arrivals on the same time last year (July 2021).

In total there were more than 1,965,400 passengers who arrived in Ireland on overseas routes last month.

Some 1,783,600 passengers arrived by air and 181,800 by sea. More arrivals came via Great Britain (661,200) than from any other country.

Speaking about the figures, Gregg Patrick, CSO statistician, said: “The latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show 1,965,400 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland in July 2022.

"This is a very substantial increase on July 2021, when 380,700 overseas passengers arrived (and an even more substantial increase on July 2020, when just 227,300 overseas passengers arrived).

"However, overseas arrivals remain significantly lower (12 per cent) than pre-pandemic June 2019, when 2,225,900 overseas passengers arrived.

"The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced (with a five-fold increase compared to July 2021).

"It has also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most in relative terms with eight transatlantic passengers arriving in July 2022 for every one in July 2021."

Mr Patrick said among continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 277,200 passengers arriving on these routes, a more than six-fold increase compared to July 2021.

Overseas arrivals 12% fewer than pre-pandemichttps://t.co/jwAubwOHvH#CSOIreland #Ireland #Tourism #Travel #Holidays #LoveIreland #OverseasTravel #AirAndSeaTravel pic.twitter.com/A6fxpfjb4V

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) August 30, 2022