While the current Covid-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on our local tourism industry, figures released by NISRA show that pre-lockdown the tourism industry in Northern Ireland was booming.
Tourism estimates for Jan-Sep 2019 suggest that:
3.6m overnight trips were taken in Northern Ireland during Jan-Sep 2019 by NI residents and those from Great Britain (GB) and Other Overseas. This is a record breaking number of trips for this time period, up by 5% on Jan-Sep 2018, with increases evident for all main markets
Visitors spent £712m, up by £56m (+9%) on Jan-Sep 2018. While all markets spent more, the increase is largely due to the significant growth in GB spend (+18%)
Some £2.6m was spent on average each day
Holiday trips increased by 9% compared with Jan-Sep 2018, with a strong GB performance (+19%) and domestic holidays increasing by 7%
