OVERSEAS TRAVEL TO and from Ireland increased substantially last month compared to June as Covid-19 restrictions were eased.

Data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that 227,300 overseas travellers visited Ireland while 275,400 people left the country.

These compare with 57,100 arrivals and 73,900 departures in the previous month, increases of 298% and 272% respectively.

However, despite the sharp increase, overseas travel in July remained dramatically lower than in July last year, when there were 2,225,900 arrivals and 2,183,900 departures, falls of 89% and 87% respectively.

Of the 227,300 persons arriving in Ireland in July 2020, 188,100 (82.7%) arrived by air and 39,200 (17.3%) arrived by sea, the CSO said.

Of the 275,400 persons departing Ireland, 239,000 (86.8%) departed by air and 36,400 (13.2%) departed by sea.

Of those arriving in Ireland, 97,100 (42.7%) came by cross-channel routes, 114,800 (50.5%) by continental routes, 8,800 (3.9%) by transatlantic routes and 6,600 (2.9%) by other overseas routes.

Most people travelling to Ireland came from Great Britain (97,100), Spain (23,000) and France (13,200).

The majority of people leaving Ireland travelled to Great Britain (82,800), Spain (38,500) and Poland (23,800).

For the year-to-date (January-July), 3,414,000 persons arrived in Ireland from overseas and 3,448,700 persons departed.

These both represent decreases of 70.5% compared to the same period in 2019.