Arrivals Up As Tourism Recovers

Over 1,309,500 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in December 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 89%.

According to the CSO, the month saw an additional 616,600 passengers arrive in Ireland, with 1,237,000 passengers arriving  by air and 72,500 travelling by sea. The vast majority of passengers arrived from the UK, accounting for around 42% of overall air and sea travel.

The most recent figures from December represent a significant recovery in international travel.  CSO statistician, Gregg Patrick, said: 

"The recovery in air travel is most pronounced, increasing by 92.8% in December 2022 compared with December 2021. The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most. In relative terms, there were more than two passengers arriving on transatlantic routes in December 2022 for every one passenger in December 2021."

Mr Patrick also noted a surge in travel among continental routes, with Spain remaining the busiest, comprising 117,800 passengers arriving on these routes, up 69.7% year-on-year.

In 2022, over 17,257,000 passengers arrived in Ireland from overseas compared with 2021, which saw less than five million arrivals. However passenger arrivals in 2022 remained significantly lower (-14.3%) than pre-pandemic 2019, when 20,143,700 passengers arrived on overseas routes.