NORTHERN IRELAND is experiencing an increase in international visitors despite the global economic downturn, according to figures provided by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
The board's chief executive, Alan Clarke, told The Irish Timesthat between January and May this year there were 388,000 direct visits from Britain and overseas to Northern Ireland.
“This is an increase of 5,000 on the same period in 2010. These visitors spent £85.6 million, over £5 million more compared with the first five months of 2010. Europe and Great Britain have seen the most positive growth,” he added.
“Thanks also to the rise of the ‘staycation’ trend, there were 584,000 overnight domestic trips taken, generating £36 million in spend. In addition, Northern Ireland residents took 1.035 million day trips here, generating a further £17.7 million to the economy,” he said.
Mr Clarke said the MTV awards in Belfast in November, the build-up to the Titanic centenary and the opening of the new visitor centre at the Giant’s Causeway next year would help in bringing more visitors to Northern Ireland next year and beyond.
Hoteliers, while acknowledging that visitor numbers were generally on a par with last year, said tourist spending was down and overall the season so far has been “mixed”.
Northern Ireland Hotels Federation chief executive Janice Gault said that in the second quarter of this year the hotel occupancy rate was 67.5 per cent, just marginally down on last year. “It’s been a mixed season; there is a nervousness in the market place,” she said.
Ms Gault added that tour business was up while conferences were down and that “staycation business tends to be last minute and very price sensitive”.
Malachy Toner is manager of the Wellington Park Hotel in south Belfast which is part of the Mooney Group that also owns the Armagh City and Dunadry hotels. He agreed that the high-spending conference business was down but the drop in the market was cushioned by a significant increase in coach tour business.
“We have seen an increase in organised tours this year and also in individual visitors taking in the North as part of, say, a European tour,” he said. “The tours haven’t balanced out the loss of conference business but it has helped soften the blow.”
Coach tours have seen visitors from France, Germany, and the US signing the hotel register with a particular increase in the numbers from Japan, he added.
He is hopeful that hotels, restaurants and BBs will manage to weather the recessionary storms, particularly with next year’s centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. “We hope to see the numbers increasing . . . The public relations and marketing work is already started and that will build up in the coming months,” he said.