Surge in visitor numbers to Ireland
February Eddie 2023 The Air In With February 9% In Picture: Pronounced, Travel 2022 By O'hare 56 Most Is Pared Increasing Recovery
The number of passengers who arrived into Ireland from overseas in February was up more than 56% on the same time last year, as arrival numbers also surpassed pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.
Latest air and sea travel statistics from the CSO for February 2023 show that more than 1,228,900 passengers arrived into Ireland on overseas routes last month, an increase of 56.1% on the 787,300 arrivals in February 2020.
February figures also show that passenger arrivals were 1.1% higher than pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.
Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, Statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said that last month’s figures represent a “very substantial increase” on February 2022, with the increase “even more substantial” when compared to February 2021, when just 54,800 passengers arrived into the country from overseas.
“The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, increasing by 56.9% in February 2023 compared with February 2022,” he said.
Some 1,184,200 passengers arrived by air and 44,700 by sea in February 2023. The share of over 96% of passengers travelling by air and less than 4% travelling by sea last month reflects similar passenger shares in February 2020.
“The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (97.5%) in relative terms, increasing from 38,100 in February 2022 to 75,300 in February 2023,” said Mr Patrick.
Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 493,100 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain in February 2023. 40.2% of all passenger arrivals (494,100) last month came or returned to Ireland on cross-channel routes from Great Britain, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
Some 49.1% of passenger arrivals (603,400) came or returned to Ireland on continental routes from Europe, while 6.1% of passenger arrivals (75,300) came or returned to Ireland on transatlantic routes from the United States or Canada. Just 4.6% of passenger arrivals (56,000) came or returned to Ireland on other routes embarking in Africa or Asia.
Apart from Great Britain, the most important country gateways for passengers travelling to Ireland were Spain (134,100), France (83,000), and the United States (66,300).
When comparing passenger flows with February 2020, passenger arrivals embarking from Spain were 21.8% higher than pre-pandemic levels and passenger arrivals embarking from France were 29.3% higher. However, passenger arrivals embarking from the United States decreased by 18.0% when compared with February 2020.