Hotel room sales near pre-pandemic levels

The number of hotel rooms sold in Northern Ireland last year rose by 62% compared with 2021, to 2.1 million, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency has revealed.

While lower than peak room sales of 2.3m pre-pandemic, the figures impressive post-pandemic growth despite the Northern Ireland Hotel Occupancy 2022 research showing there were almost 500 less hotel rooms available here last year compared to 2021.

NISRA revealed Northern Ireland had 9,187 hotel rooms last year, but 9,627 in 2021. This is the lowest hotel stock here since 2017 when there were 8,121 rooms. Even 2018 had more, sitting at 9,221.

Back in March, the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation said in its latest market report that a combination of Covid-19 and hotels re-certifying as guest accommodation were behind the drop in numbers.

It said there were 9,432 rooms here, but NISRA has published the figure as 9,187.

Of the hotel rooms available here, room occupancy was higher in 2022 than 2021, with three-star properties experiencing a rise in occupancy of 10% to 61%. Room occupancy in the four-star sector remained the same at 69%, which is the highest it has been since the pandemic when room occupancy sat at 72% in 2019

Meanwhile, figures relating to visitor attractions here in 2022 showed country parks and forests were the biggest crowd pullers, accounting for 33% of attraction visitors.

But the biggest visitor attraction during the year was Titanic Belfast, which drew in 611,000 visitors, 173% more than 2021, but still less than the pre-pandemic high of 823,000.

W5 experienced the greatest jump in visits, up 718% to 277,000 in 2022 which is the same as its pre-pandemic figure.