Over 16,000 people arrived in Ireland from overseas during April, new data reveals.
Last month saw 12,100 passengers arrive in this country by air and 4,000 by sea during the coronavirus lockdown despite a government advisory against foreign travel.
The Central Statistics Office’s latest Air and Sea Travel report shows there were 17,800 departures from Ireland - 12,800 by air and 4,900 by sea.
However, the numbers mark a dive of 99% on the same period in 2019, when more than more than 1.7 million overseas visitors travelled to and the same number departed our shores.
The majority of passengers arriving in Ireland (57%) were from the UK (9,300), followed by the Netherlands (1,200) and the United States (1,100).
Meanwhile 49% of 17,800 passengers leaving Ireland headed for the UK (8,800), followed by the Netherlands (2,000) and France (1,400).
The four months between January and April saw a drop of 44.4% year-on-year in the number of people arriving in Ireland from overseas.
UK passengers made up 41% or 1.3 million of the 3.1 million arrivals during that time.
Spain was next (297,000), followed by the US (229,000), Germany (189,000) and France (164,000).
A total of 3,063,100 travellers left Ireland between January and April – a drop of 45.1% compared to the same period in 2019.
