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Northern Ireland. Issue issue105 8 Sep/Oct Aug/Sep2021 11
Economy • Energy • Education Carbon Tax • Special Reports: Health • ICT
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economy report
Tourism: An economic review
Credit: Tourism Northern Ireland
support to councils to enhance visitor experiences, develop new offerings and encourage them to use their resources to promote tourism in their district to give businesses the ability to develop.
Tourism NI is preparing a range of measures, outlined in the Tourism Recovery Action Plan, to support the tourism industry to recover from the devasting impact of Covid in the years ahead. Immediate priorities include product development, digital innovation, conferencing and events support, website, and experience development programmes as well as a range of additional interventions from a holiday voucher scheme and continued heavyweight advertising activity. A return to pre-pandemic levels will take time, but with the successful roll out of the vaccine programme, the lifting of restrictions and the opening up of the Common Travel Area, I am hopeful that by the end of 2022 the tourism industry in Northern Ireland could be back to 80 per cent of the activity and employment levels of 2019 and see a full recovery by the end of 2024. Key to this will be the range of tourism interventions introduced over the last 18 92
months including the latest phase of the Tourism Recovery Action Plan which I launched in May with the former Economy Minister Diane Dodds MLA. Under the first theme of business continuity, we will be developing a new KickStart programme aimed at helping businesses restructure, innovate and enhance their productivity, as well as supporting businesses maintain and enhance their marketing activity. Going forward, we will also be providing
There will be a particular focus on food and drink experiences as part of this approach. We will also support market testing and feasibility studies for future projects, and we intend to continue with our abatement of accommodation certification charges until March 2022. Rebuilding consumer confidence is critical and as part of this we wish to see the continued rollout of the “We're Good to Go” charter mark to allow the industry to demonstrate that safety is a priority, and that they are committed to the application of Covid safety guidelines. Stimulating consumer demand is another area that has been highlighted within the action plan with the aim of ensuring that Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland are adequately resourced to
Credit: Tourism Ireland
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