More than 1,633,800 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in October 2022.
This compares with 925,500 arrivals in October 2021, an increase of 76.5%.
Some 1,557,200 passengers arrived by air and 76,600 by sea in October 2022.
More arrivals came via Great Britain (552,600) than via any other country in October 2022.
|
The collection of Tourism Statistics at air and sea ports was suspended in March 2020, to protect CSO enumerators and the travelling public from COVID-19. As a result, the details of travel to Ireland classified by country of residence, which were previously presented in the monthly Overseas Travel release, are not currently available. To help fill the data gap, the CSO is publishing this Air and Sea Travel Statistics release which reports on the numbers of overseas travellers arriving and departing Ireland classified by travel route. The information is compiled primarily from statistics provided by the DAA (Cork and Dublin airports), together with data from other airports and sea ferry operators. In March 2022 the CSO resumed survey operations at Dublin Airport on a test basis, using a new data capture methodology. This testing will extend to the other air and sea ports over the remaining months of this year. Until these trials are complete and survey operations are fully scaled, the CSO will continue publishing these Air and Sea Travel Statistics to provide high level visibility on overseas passenger flows. |
Of the 1,633,800 passengers arriving in Ireland in October 2022, 95.3% (1,557,200) arrived by air and 4.7% (76,600) arrived by sea. This means the percentage share of air and sea travel has returned to October 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
In October 2022, just over one-third (34.0%) of passenger arrivals (555,100) came or returned to Ireland on cross-channel routes (i.e. their point of embarkation was an airport or seaport in Great Britain, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands). Just over half (52.8%) of passenger arrivals (863,200) came or returned to Ireland on continental routes (embarking in a European airport or seaport other than in Great Britain, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands). Just under one-tenth (9.8%) of passenger arrivals (160,700) came or returned to Ireland on transatlantic routes (embarking in the United States or Canada). Approximately three in every one hundred (3.4%) of passenger arrivals (54,900) came or returned to Ireland on other routes (embarking in Africa or Asia).
Apart from Great Britain (which accounted for almost all cross-channel activity in October 2022), the most important country gateways for passengers travelling to Ireland were Spain (232,300), the United States (139,700), France (108,200) and Germany (86,700). When we compare these passenger flows with October 2019, we see that passenger arrivals embarking from Spain were 3.6% higher than pre-pandemic levels and arrivals embarking from France increased by 15.1%. However, passenger arrivals embarking from the United States and Germany decreased by 11.5% and 19.2% respectively when compared with October 2019.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 November 2022) released Air and Sea Travel Statistics for October 2022.
Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, statistician, said: “The latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show that 1,633,800 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in October 2022. These passengers, comprising foreign visitors arriving in Ireland and Irish overseas travellers returning home, represent a very substantial increase on October 2021, when 925,500 passengers arrived on overseas routes. The increase is even more substantial when compared with October 2020 when just 160,900 passengers arrived on these routes. However, passenger arrivals remain lower (5.4%) than pre-pandemic October 2019, when 1,727,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes.
The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, increasing 82.5% compared with October 2021. The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most. In relative terms, there were four passengers arriving on transatlantic routes in October 2022 for every one passenger in October 2021. Among the continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 232,300 passengers arriving on these routes, a 52.6% increase compared with October 2021.
However, in overall terms, Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 552,600 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain, compared to just 314,200 in October 2021."