Visiting Northern Ireland
The region’s hotels and attractions have recorded a boost in trade.
Northern Ireland’s hotels have recorded a rise in room occupancy for the first five months of 2015, bringing the level to 65 per cent.
A 5 per cent increase was experienced for the period January-May in comparison to the same time last year. Bed occupancy jumped 9 per cent to 48 per cent.
Three quarters of hotel rooms (76 per cent) were occupied in the month of May. This was an increase of 5 per cent on the same time last year and a rise of 8 per cent on both May 2013 and 2012.
The latest figures come from the tourism statistics branch of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
However, for guesthouses, guest accommodation and bed and breakfast levels remain low. An increase of 1 per cent brought room occupancy up to 22 per cent for January to May, whereas the same rise took bed occupancy to 15 per cent.
Room occupancy in this category continued to decline. At 32 per cent, it was down one per cent on May 2014. However, it was 6 per cent lower than the level recorded in 2013.
The number of rooms and beds sold in this section also continued a downward trend. Rooms sold in guesthouses, guest accommodation and bed and breakfast stood at 36,761 in May 2013. Beds sold in this section were recorded as 63,515 for the same period. The following year, they had slumped to 31,979 rooms and 55,381 beds.
The figures released for the 12 months leading up to May 2015, showed a sales drop of 11 per cent for rooms (to 28,481) and beds by 4 per cent (to 53,004).
Visitor origins
The latest visitor numbers from NISRA cover 2014 and show an 11 per cent increase in trips to the region, bringing the total to 4.5 million. There was a 4 per cent increase in both overnight stays, 15.1 million, and total spend, to £751 million.
Visitors numbers equated to:
overseas 614, 000;
Republic of Ireland 389,000;
Great Britain 1.2 million; and
from within Northern Ireland 2.3 million.
Two-thirds of overseas visitors arrive into the region via the Republic, but 93 per cent of visitors from Great Britain either fly or sail directly to Northern Ireland. Of those visiting, fewer than 10 per cent came for business reasons, while 42 per cent cited to see friends and relatives and 45 per cent for holidays.
Tourist attractions
There were 15.3 million visits to visitor attractions last year, with an overall 3 per cent increase between 2013-2014. August was the most popular month with over 1.5 million visits recorded.
Out of the top five attractions, the Ulster Museum experienced the biggest rise in numbers – up 12 per cent to 466,000. W5 interactive discovery centre, the Giant’s Causeway and Titanic Belfast all had a boost in numbers, while the Walls of Derry’s popularity dipped by 10 per cent.
Elsewhere in the top ten, visitors flocked to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge on the north Antrim coast causing it to jump 23 per cent to 323,000.
Lagan Valley Regional Park attracted the highest number of visitors among the region’s parks, forests and gardens. Over 1.3 million visitors visited during 2014 – a 19 per cent increase in the number of visitors when compared to the previous year.
