Northern Ireland tourism brings in £1m a day

13 December 2006 by
Northern Ireland tourism brings in £1m a day

Tourism is bringing in almost £1m a day to the Northern Ireland economy, despite a drop in visitors from Great Britain, figures show.

The statistics released by NI Tourist Board (NITB) and Tourism Ireland reveal that there were 1.8 million visitors last year, bringing £340m into the economy.

Visitors from Europe rose by 28% while those coming from North America to Northern Ireland jumped by 14%. However, there has been a 42,000 drop in tourists from the main British market.

Alan Clarke, chief executive of NITB, said no-one would have thought 12 months ago that Northern Ireland "would be tipped as a must-see destination" by the Lonely Planet tourist guide.

"We must be aware, however, of the considerable potential that still exists closer to home in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland," he said. "The Republic of Ireland, particularly, offers untapped lucrative business for Northern Ireland".

Tourism Ireland's chief executive Paul O'Toole said his group intended to "continue to grow tourism "to the island of Ireland, and within that, Northern Ireland, at a higher rate of growth than international tourism".

Northern Ireland smoking ban to begin 30 April 2007 >>

By Daniel Thomas

E-mail your comments to Daniel Thomas here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking