By Cate McCurry, PA
Overseas travel to and from Ireland decreased in November compared to the previous month, new figures have shown.
Figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday show that 785,800 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes last month, down 15 per cent on October.
In the same month, 785,000 passengers departed from Ireland on overseas routes, down 12 per cent on the previous month.
Overseas travel in November this year was considerably higher than in November 2020, when 103,900 passengers arrived, and 96,800 passengers departed, the CSO said.
Overseas travel decreased in Novemberhttps://t.co/Yv1uHcLkB1 #CSOIreland #Ireland #Tourism #Travel #Holidays #LoveIreland #OverseasTravel #AirAndSeaTravel pic.twitter.com/84puEA2yKU
— ? Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) December 22, 2021
However, overseas travel remains considerably lower than pre-pandemic levels when 1,351,400 passengers arrived and 1,328,400 passengers departed in November 2019.
Statistician Gregg Patrick said: “The air and sea travel statistics for November 2021 show a decrease in overseas travel compared to the preceding month.
“In November 2021, 785,000 overseas passengers departed from Ireland, compared to 895,100 in October 2021, a decrease of 12 per cent.
“The November 2021 statistics show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic.”
Some 412,000 passengers arrived from continental routes and 397,300 passengers departed on continental routes.
By way of contrast, 313,800 passengers arrived from cross-channel routes and 322,700 passengers departed on cross-channel routes.
Just 37,300 passengers arrived from transatlantic routes and 46,700 passengers departed on these routes.
Apart from Britain, which accounted for all cross-channel routes, the most important routeing countries for overseas travel last month were Spain with 94,700 arrivals and 85,700 departures; Germany with 45,800 arrivals and 47,500 departures; and France with 43,900 arrivals and 47,900 departures.
“When we look at the year-to-date picture, the statistics show that 4,263,000 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland and 4,289,300 overseas passengers departed from Ireland,” Mr Patrick said.
“This compares to both 4.3 million arrivals and departures in the same period in 2020 and 18.8 million arrivals and departures in the same period in 2019.
“This illustrates the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland.”
