Record visitor numbers from Republic boost NI hospitality

A record number of visitors from the Republic coming north of the border for overnight trips last year gave NI hospitality a much-needed boost.

An estimated 1.1 million overnight trips were recorded during 2022 by the Republic’s Central Statistics Office (CSO).

That represented a 51% jump on the 756,000 recorded during 2019.

The CSO estimated some 2.6 million nights in total were spent in the north by visitors from the Republic in 2022, a 42%  rise on 2019.

The statistics, sourced from the CSO by Tourism NI, estimate that the trips produced a spend of around £233 million in 2022, a 65 per cent increase on the £142m estimate from 2019.

The interim chief executive of Tourism NI, David Roberts, said: “These excellent results surpass even our most optimistic forecasts for 2022.

“At a time when international markets have still been recovering, the additional business from the Republic has been hugely important to the tourism and hospitality sector right across Northern Ireland.

“A notable feature is that visits by RoI (Republic of Ireland) residents to Northern Ireland grew at a much faster rate than visits within the Republic itself,” he said.