Short-stay visits into Ireland are now temporarily banned from 11 South American countries and South Africa.
Visa-free travel ended at midnight and will remain until March 5th as part of government's plan to stop Covid-19 variants arriving.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach told his parliamentary party last night that people travelling for holidays will face tough sanctions.
Micheal Martin said 800 people arrived into Dublin Airport on Monday, and almost half were from holiday spots.
But Cork travel agent and CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association Pat Dawson says international travel is not the big issue.
"There's other areas where Covid has spread as we've seen before Christmas, in households and such.
"Certainly International travel has to be very careful, and the incidence of International travel bringing Covid into the country is less than 1%.
"But having said all that certainly people have to be mindful of it."
