Brand USA Thank Irish Travel Trade at Taste of America Aer Lingus Roadshows.

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Sarah Beckwith, Trade Manager for Brand USA UK and Ireland and Holly Jordan, Trade Director for Brand USA UK and Ireland, delivered some really good news for the Irish travel trade at last week’s taste of America Aer Lingus roadshows.

Ireland remained in the top 20 overseas markets for visitation into the US throughout 2023 finishing the year as the 14th highest in terms of overseas arrivals. That’s fantastic news for the trade in Ireland as we also recorded the highest percentage increase on January 2019 arrivals in January 2024 within the UK and European markets, showing really strong signs of a positive recovery. Ireland’s performance in January 2024 compared with 2019 (pre pandemic) is up by just under 9% and verses end of January 2023 up by over 23%!!

At the end of 2023 Ireland ranked 14th worldwide for visitation to the US with a total number of passengers of 454,988 and when you compare that to end of year 2019 (pre pandemic) Ireland’s  figure was 520,692 so we are almost back to pre-pandemic levels and when the increase already recorded in January 2024 is taken into account, Ireland is well on the way to exceeding that figure which is a great result.