As we celebrated the success of the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down a few weeks ago, it was easy to grasp the impact that an internationally visible sporting event can have for the local economy.
Such showcase tournaments undoubtedly give Northern Ireland’s tourism sector a boost by putting our spectacular scenery on display to those watching on television in countries around the world, and of course leave a lasting impression on the many overseas visitors who attend in person.
And yet, outside of the big ticket events, the overall importance of our local tourism and hospitality sector is still sometimes undervalued in some quarters by people who have outdated perceptions of the industry and the contribution that it makes.
Only a few weeks ago, official statistics showed that visitors to the region spent a record £1.2 billion in 2023 and generated by 5.4 million overnight trips, 60% of them from outside Northern Ireland.
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The industry also supports more than 70,000 jobs and is one of the most geographically and socially dispersed sectors of the economy, with 70% of jobs located outside of Belfast. Almost 80% of the 5,845 tourism businesses operate outside the Belfast City Council area and 69% of visits last year also went beyond the capital.
It’s for this reason that the key industry stakeholders – including Tourism NI, Hospitality Ulster, the NI Hotel Federation, the NI Tourism Alliance, Tourism Ireland, Ulster University and the Further & Higher Education Network – have launched the region’s first Tourism and Hospitality Week. Through a series of engaging events for the industry, we have been shining a spotlight on the importance of the sector to the local economy.
All partners are working towards making Northern Ireland a year-round, world class destination renowned for authentic experiences, landscape, heritage and culture and one which benefits communities and the environment.
Collectively, we believe that tourism and hospitality can play a big role in helping meet the Department for the Economy’s priority target of creating more good jobs that rebalance the economy by continuing to provide modern qualifications and creating career pathways for those with an interest in working in the sector.
We have ambitious targets to grow the value of tourism over the next decade by giving visitors further reasons to stay longer, spend more and spread value. While we believe there is a great opportunity to achieve this growth, there are also challenges facing the tourism sector that need to be overcome to maintain the current trajectory.
These include making sure that enough investment is going into our tourism product and marketing our offer to enable us to compete with other destinations, particularly those closest to home in GB and Ireland.
The recent NISRA statistics suggests business from the GB and RoI markets has fully recovered from the difficult years experienced in the pandemic, and the volume of flights between Irish airports and international markets is now higher than in 2019. Encouragingly, consumer sentiment research has consistently found that the majority of visitors say their trips matched or exceeded expectations. All of this creates a fantastic platform for future growth.
- David Roberts is director of strategic development at Tourism NI
