Shoots of Recovery

Tourism in Northern Ireland had surpassed the £1billion mark before the pandemic hit. Now, like the rest of the world, the industry is on a road to recover what was lost during the pandemic. Emma Deighan talks with Tourism NI Chief Executive John McGrillen about the task ahead.

John McGrillen says tourism here broke the £1billion glass ceiling in 2019. “It was the first time in our history that tourism spend reached such a level and everything was looking positive,” he begins. “Then, in early March 2020 everything was turned on its head.”

It’s been estimated that the tourism industry across the whole of the UK at the height of the pandemic saw a reduction of 98% in air passengers. Restrictions within the hospitality sector, domestically, compounded that pressure.

“We were pretty much shut down until the end of June 2021 when at least things opened domestically,” John continues. “Since then there have been many twists and turns and the pace has been frenetic.

“The tourism industry had fundamentally shut down and we knew the impact was going to be greater than on any other sector. We also knew we would be the last to come out of this and the sector needed its own dedicated support programme.”

Crisis meetings led to the setting up of a Tourism Recovery Steering Group which oversaw the development of a crossdepartmental Tourism Recovery Action Plan. Actions within the plan – alongside the business support grants and rates relief provided by Stormont, and the VAT reduction and scheme funded by Westminster – offered the industry some protection, but recovery is going to be a long and winding road.

In the absence of visitors from overseas it was the responsibility of Tourism NI to do what it could to generate sufficient business from the island of Ireland to keep tourism businesses afloat.

John says, “Much of our focus last year was on demand generation. The additional resources made available to us by the Executive to deliver the recovery plan allowed us to run a number of very successful marketing campaigns and support businesses to do their own marketing and sales to capitalise on that work.”

Over the autumn Tourism Ireland ran a similar campaign in the GB market aimed at consumers in regions with direct air and sea links to Northern Ireland.

This has helped grow visitor numbers in what might be seen as a silver lining following the cloud which has hung over the sector for almost two years now. John says those efforts will leave a lasting legacy.

“There is absolutely no doubt that we saw a rise in visitors from those markets. We track visitor spend, and with access to credit card data, we knew how people were using cards and where they were coming from.

“There was an increase of over 150% in spend from the ROI market. We ran a huge campaign in the summer of 2020 which saw twice as many people visit, and then in 2021 visitor numbers rose again by a further 50% on the 2019 figures. Over the summer one in every four short breaks taken by ROI visitors were to Northern Ireland.

“Positive word of mouth also boosted those visitor figures and I do believe there

Recovery

will be a lasting benefit from that. That being said, we need to be mindful that next year it would be unreasonable to expect the same levels of business from the local market. With people having been virtually locked in on the island for the past two years, they’ll want to get away next summer,” he adds.

John believes that the tourism ecosystem will require continued support into next year while visitor numbers from the international markets recover.

Visitors from overseas had been growing significantly pre pandemic. In Northern Ireland there were over 5.3 million trips made in 2019, three million of which were from overseas tourists.

“Prior to the pandemic, those figures were projected to increase significantly in 2020,” John reveals “but I don’t think we’ll see anything like that again until 2024 or 2025.”

The upward trend has begun already, he says positively.

“The appetite to travel has returned and that’s great to see. Our own experience has been positive since the American routes opened. We saw a significant uplift in US visitors, especially those coming to golf. Up to now, the trends are positive.”

He praises the collective work between Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland to entice more travellers to Ireland, with a “huge 2022 campaign” on the cards.

“The Irish Government has recently increased their contribution to the Tourism Ireland budgets by over €30million. Whilst this is aimed at increasing visitors to the Republic, we will feel the benefit as many will visit both sides of the border.”

Indeed the Irish Government has recently announced a separate fund of €90million to support the recovery of the aviation sector and to rebuild air routes into the South. Given that most of Northern Ireland’s US and European visitors arrive via the Republic of Ireland, that will help too. A real team approach between agencies and the industry locally is also essential, John says, for a Northern Ireland rebound.

“Every tourism destination on the planet has lost its tourism business and everyone will be fighting to recover over the next three to four years. Whilst opportunities exist, we are in a more competitive environment than ever before so it’s important to invest in marketing, develop the capability of businesses to secure sales in the international marketplace and we need our visitor attractions and hoteliers to help to secure business alongside us.

“We are all part of the ecosystem and we all have a part to play in building the industry back.”

Part of this ecosystem is the newly launched Ambassador Circle which will bring together business and academic leaders in advanced manufacturing, technology, life and health sciences, food and drink and financial, professional and business services to help identify, target and attract key business events and conferences to Northern Ireland. It is a joint initiative between Tourism NI, Invest Northern Ireland, Visit Belfast and Visit Derry.

International meetings and events play a huge role in tourism here, often acting as a lead-in for business delegates to embark on leisure trips here, but also, while here, those delegates contribute massively to the tourism spend, generating mid-week, year-round demand for our venues, hotels and more.

They also put NI’s skills and innovation on the world stage, selling Northern Ireland as a place to work, live, study and invest.

“International research commissioned by Tourism NI indicates that the number one factor in attracting a conference or a meeting to a destination is its international reputation for expertise in that sector,” John continues.

He says around 85% of business events coming to Belfast do so because of the work of an ambassador.

“I am confident that by working closely in collaboration with The Ambassador Circle, and playing to our undoubted strengths in Northern Ireland, we can harness the support of Northern Ireland’s business, education and research talent to attract even more national and international business events to the region, boosting visitor numbers and spend, and supporting the long term recovery of our tourism industry.”

John says there is still much untapped potential in Northern Ireland. Add to that additional new attractions and maybe Northern Ireland is a step ahead of the rest?

At a recent six month recovery update, he said the future was positive for the sector thanks to a number of significant new tourism projects including those under the City and Growth Deals, such as the Mourne Mountain Gateway Project, the Derry North Atlantic Museum, The Gobbins Phase II, Hillsborough Village and the Belfast Destination Hub.

Also due to open on 5 February, after a postponement forced by COVID, is the £24m Game of Thrones Studio Tour in Banbridge. Its launch was held off until the return of the international tourist who will enjoy the world’s only Game of Thrones Studio Tour.

Activity around marketing NI is buoyant too, with the return of World Travel Market in London late last year seeing tourism professionals promote NI. Meanwhile, a new ROI market strategy has set a revenue target of £193million, 10% of the value of all trips made by Republic of Ireland residents on the island, by 2026.

John adds: “I’m cautiously optimistic. There is opportunity out there and we are well placed to grasp it. We haven’t lost any of our core strengths – all of our big tourism providers have survived – our product offering has strengthened, US consumers are now travelling again and that can only bring more US visitors.

“After what has been a very challenging period the announcement that the Open will be returning in 2025 is also a great vote of confidence in Northern Ireland. This is something to truly look forward to and we will be working closely with the tourism industry to maximise the benefits it will bring across Northern Ireland.”

“The appetite to travel has returned and that’s great to see. Our own experience has been positive since the American routes opened. We saw a significant uplift in US visitors, especially those coming to golf. Up to now, the trends are positive.”