Tourism NI: future looking bright after covid-19 nightmare
Northern Ireland’s covid-hit tourism industry is back on track with levels of growth expected to reach the record high of 2019, it can be revealed today (Monday).
When the pandemic struck just over two years ago, tourism was one of the worst-affected sectors, resulting in hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenue.
However, it looks like it has now turned a significant corner – and in an interview with Downtown Radio & Cool FM, Tourism NI chief executive, John McGrillen said the long-term future was bright
“I suppose our record year was 2019 – our expectation would be that by the end of 2024 we would probably be back to those levels," he said.
“Then we would be hoping to see a growth trajectory similar to that which were experiencing before 2019 continuing on from that point until the end of the decade.”
He said already demand from around the world was on the up – with staycations also likely to prove popular again in the summer.
“We are seeing very significant demand and certainly interest in overseas markets particularly in the United States, Europe and GB which is close to home and a very important market for us,” he said.
“People who live here in Northern Ireland have got out and about and have seen what's on their doorstep.
"We are seeing bookings in places like the north coast and in the Mournes for the summer – there are places that already booked out by local people.”
Meanwhile, it appears holidaymakers from the Republic are also showing a huge interest this year in Northern Ireland.
"I think the one step change that hopefully we will see is we've seen visitors from the Republic of Ireland in numbers that we have never seen before - and that's always bee a difficult market for a whole host of historical reasons.
"I think we have seen a step change and I think that step change will continue.
"We would be very hopeful that we would continue to see significant growth from the Republic which is on our doorstep and again working with our colleagues in Tourism Ireland we think there is still significant potential for growth in the GB market."