Business tourism in Northern Ireland

Business tourism in Northern Ireland increased last year but 2012 has started badly.

2011 saw a positive year for business tourism in Northern Ireland, with an extra 33,000 people visiting, according to official figures. The 276,000 visitors represented a 14 per cent increase. All the main market areas saw growth, particularly Great Britain and Europe. International business travel grew by 8.5 per cent last year, according to the Global Business Travel Association.

Business tourism can be defined as a trip for the purpose of attending an activity or event associated with business interests. Conferences, exhibitions, incentive travel (recreational travel provided by employers as incentives or bonuses), corporate events and individual business travel are the main forms.

The number of visitors from Great Britain increased by 11 per cent while the total from other European countries was up by 36 per cent, according to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s tourism performance summary for 2011. The 13,000 North American business tourists, however, represented a 22 per cent decrease on 2010. Visitors from elsewhere grew by 11,000, a 69 per cent increase.

Northern Ireland’s 14 per cent increase in business tourism compares well with that in the UK: 5 per cent. Comparable figures for the Republic of Ireland in 2011 are unavailable. The increase was borne out by the 2 per cent increase in hotel rooms sold in 2011 despite a decline of 10 per cent in the number of bed spaces, as business tourism tends more often to be single occupancy rooms. Of those who visited Northern Ireland in 2011, according to DETI tourism statistics, 19 per cent were on business trips.

The first three months of 2012, however, have seen a negative trend for tourism in the province. The decline in overall visitor numbers (13 per cent) has included business tourism, with a 21 per cent decline on the first quarter of last year. 47,000 people visited the province on business in Q1 2012.

Of those who visited Northern Ireland for business last year, 76.1 per cent were from Britain while 15.2 per cent came from the rest of Europe, and 4.7 per cent were from North America, similar to the proportion from other countries (4.0 per cent).

The most recent Business Visitor Attitude Survey (2009-2010), commissioned by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, provided a profile of business tourists here. The survey of 774 visitors from 15 business events held over a six-month period found that such visitors stayed an average of 2.6 days at events. Thirteen per cent of visitors extended their stay beyond the event that they were attending, equating to an additional 3.3 days. This is a marked decline on the one-third of respondents in a comparable 2005-2006 survey who said that they extended their say.

Eighty-three per cent of business visitors stayed in hotels. The average total conference-related spend of foreign business travellers at conferences was £359 (including registration fee), with total trip spend only £4.50 extra at £363.50. Encouragingly, 90 per cent of respondents said that they would recommend Northern Ireland as a business destination.

A 2010 study by Deloitte and Oxford Economics, commissioned by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and VisitBritain, found that in 2009 tourism constituted 4.9 per cent of the province’s economy, 4.7 per cent of employment and £1.49 billion of GDP.