THE north's billion pound millennium hotels boom has begun to pay dividends, with new figures revealing that a record 2.3 million rooms were sold in 2019.
That was up 4 per cent (around 100,000 rooms) on the previous year, and close to 500,000 more than just five years ago, figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) reveal.
The number of hotel bedrooms in the north doubled in the 1999-2019 period to 9,548, with the majority being in Belfast, which has benefitted from a raft of new properties including the Merchant, Fitzwilliam, AC Marriott and Grand Central.
There are currently 145 hotels across the north, and the sector supports around 15,000 jobs.
They sit alongside 938 other properties such as guesthouses and B&Bs, which between them have 3,897 rooms offering 8,914 bed spaces.
Last year they sold a combined 827,045 beds.
The NISRA figures show that hotel room occupancy rates were 67 per cent, down from 70 per cent in 2018 and reflecting the increased accommodation availability.
The summer months were the busiest for the Northern Ireland hotel industry, with more than 235,000 rooms sold in July alone - 15 per cent higher than the same month in 2018, boosted by the staging of the Open golf championship in Portrush.
Andrew Webb, chief economist at business advisory firm Grant Thornton, said the record number of hotel rooms sold last year reflects a tourism sector very much in growth mode.
He said: “While room occupancy rates were down marginally in 2019, this is reflective of a sector that is still absorbing the scale of the huge investment made over recent years.
“Around 4,500 new hotel rooms have been added over the past 18 months alone as hoteliers invested more than half a billion pounds. That will take time to settle into the market.
“A significant portion of the increase in rooms sold can be attributed to the busy summer season, driven in 2019 by The Open, with a massive spike to be observed around the staging of the tournament.
“These figures illustrate that the key challenge for the industry and government is to attract more events to Northern Ireland and create a more year-round tourist season, rather than relying so heavily on the summer months.”
Janice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation (NIHF), said the figures highlight the vital contribution hotels make to the regional economy.
“Whilst this is good news, it's important to note increased costs in staffing and routes to market. This has been a worrying trend in 2019 and is likely to
exercise hotel operators in the coming year.”
Hotels beds sold:
:: 2014 - 1,849,521
:: 2015 - 1,897,876
:: 2016 - 2,016,024
:: 2017 - 2,105,194
:: 2018 - 2,211,912
:: 2019 - 2,311,384
Guesthouse, B&B and guest accommodation beds sold:
:: 2014 - 533,552
:: 2015 - 511,267
:: 2016 - 669,819
:: 2017 - 726,052
:: 2018 - 777,092
:: 2019 - 827,045
