Source: CSO

Overseas trips to Ireland from Great Britain fell by just over 17% in September 2008 to 318,600 compared to September 2007, according to the CSO.

Trips from Other Europe and North America also fell but to a lesser extent. Overall, overseas trips to Ireland fell by 10.8% and the fall in visitor numbers from Great Britain accounted for much of this decrease.

Irish residents made 726,300 overseas trips in September 2008 which was down very slightly from September 2007. This was in contrast to an increase of 14.5% in September 2007 compared to the same month in 2006.

In the first nine months of 2008, the number of overseas trips by Irish residents grew by 4.4% to 6,241,600 compared to the same period in 2007. This was slightly more than the number of trips taken to Ireland which fell by just over 1% to 6,174,000.

The CSO “Airport Pairings” database contains information of every direct flight in and out of the nine Irish airports on a monthly basis. Data is available from January 2006 to April 2008. For details click here.