Third of NI cruise visitors won’t disembark, MLA’s told

A third of the 75,000 people who are likely to arrive in Northern Ireland on cruise liners this year may never set foot on dry land, according to senior figures in Tourism NI.

That was the message conveyed to Stormont’s economy committee this week by the agency’s chief executive, John McGrillen, who was responding to a question from Alan Chambers MLA concerning the economic benefit to be had from visits to the province by cruise liners.

Of the projected 75,000 arrivals this year, Mr. McGrillen told the committee, a third would not get off the ship “because they get everything for free” when they are on-board.

And Laura McCorry, project development director for Tourism NI added that while it was the agency’s aim to encourage people to stay and spend when they docked in Belfast, that was “the antithesis of a cruise ship model”.

The enduring issue of the VAT rate for hospitality businesses was raised again when MLA Steve Aiken expressed support for the widely-held contention that the province’s current VAT rate of 20 per cent should be slashed to make businesses in NI more competitive with those in the Republic, where the rate is nine per cent.

Mr. McGrillen conceded that parity with the RoI on VAT would be “very helpful”. He also said that Northern Ireland was currently only delivering about 50 per cent of its potential.