Working collaboratively to accelerate the growth of tourism

Places of origin of overnight trips

While the number of overall nights has fallen by 2 per cent over the year, largely driven by a 20 per cent reduction in domestic stays and 6 per cent increase in external stays, the level of overall expenditure is up by 11 per cent. Both the domestic (8 per cent) and external (13 per cent) registered increases in this area.

A headline figure from 2015 statistics, highlighting a five year low in the number of overnight visitors coming from the Republic of Ireland, appears to have been reversed and the 0.5 million visitors is a significant uplift from the 2015 figure of 319,870.

Of the 2.1 million overnight trips taken in Northern Ireland by people outside of the island, 91 per cent of Great Britain visitors arrived via Northern Ireland ports, whereas almost two thirds of visitors from outside the UK and Ireland came through the Republic of Ireland’s ports.

Reason for trip

The main two reasons given for those staying overnight in Northern Ireland were for holiday/leisure (2.1 million) and visiting friends/relatives (1.8 million).

Since 2011 hotel accommodation occupancy in Northern Ireland has risen steadily in line with the increasing number of overnight trips. From January 2016 to December 2016 there was an estimated 2.02 million rooms sold in comparison to the 1.9 million figure for the same period in 2015. The percentage of hotel rooms occupied last year is estimated to be 70 per cent.

Visitor attractions

Out of the 400 visitor attractions surveyed at the end of December 2016, it is estimated that there were a total of 15 million visits made in 2016. Excluding country parks, the Giants Causeway World Heritage Site was the biggest

Top 10 visitor attractions 2016

Giant’s Causeway

Titanic Belfast

Ulster Museum

Carrick-a-rede

Derry’s Walls

W5

The Guildhall

Oxford Island

Pickie Fun Park

Belfast Zoo draw, improving by 11 per cent on the previous year and coming close to the 1 million visitor mark (944,000). Titanic Belfast, Northern Ireland’s second most popular attraction in 2016, attracted 667,000 visitors, up 7 per cent from 2015.

Cruise ships

The growing attractiveness of Northern Ireland as a cruise ship destination is reflected in the stark increase from the 32 ships in 2011 to the 93 that docked in 2016. Last year cruise ships brought 152,000 passengers and crew to Northern Ireland. Of the 93 cruise ships that docked, the majority (81) docked in Belfast, five docked in Derry and seven docked in other ports.