The number of tourists lost in one year from 2019 to 2020 was 14 million (14,475,300) in the Republic of Ireland due to the pandemic. In 2019 there was 18,771,100 visitors which was down to only 4,295,800 in 2020.
This difference represents a decrease of 77.1 per cent in only one year. This number illustrates the dramatic consequences of the pandemic on tourism in Ireland, according to a new study by Hellosafe.
As in many countries across the world, 2020 has been a terrible year for the tourism industry in the Republic of Ireland.
In the below table, they observe that the number of arrivals into the country decreases dramatically from March 2020 (635,000 entries) to April 2020 (16,100).
Covid restrictions
They said this decline of 97.47 per cent can be explained by all the measures taken by the Irish government to stop the pandemic, which resulted in restrictions for foreigners to enter the country.
However, they said that the number of arrivals rose in May (+ 75.78 per cent), with a progressive recovery until August 2020.
This temporary progress was possible thanks to the easing of restrictions during this period and by the fact that people tend to travel more in summer.
The majority of tourists in Ireland in 2020 came from the UK, (7,037,200 tourists in 2019 ; 1,747,100 in 2020). A lot of tourists are also coming from Spain: 2,236,200 in 2019 and still 399,500 in 2020 despite the pandemic.
They said it is no surprise to see that the majority of tourists come from the EU and the UK since it is geographically closer to Ireland and easier to travel to with restrictions due to the pandemic.
The majority of people are coming to Ireland for holidays, leisure or recreation (1,040,000 travelers over the last quarter of 2019). That is also the principal reason for Irish citizens to leave their country (1,161,000).
On the other hand, very few Irish people leave for business (only 216,000). Almost 400,000 are coming to Ireland for business in the last 3 months of 2019. Indeed, Ireland attracts a lot of companies due to its attractive taxation.
Over the same period of time, nearly 800,000 people came to Ireland to visit friends or relatives. On the other way round, 477,000 Irish are going overseas for the same reason.
