Tourism Performance Statistics
This page contains Tourism NI’s Tourism 360° Performance Updates, as well as summaries, reports and infographics on the latest NI tourism performance statistics.
Tourism 360° Performance Update
The Tourism 360° Performance Update summarises the latest available research and insights including Northern Ireland hotel performance, Tourism NI's analysis of digital data sources and more.
To view the Tourism 360° Performance Update reports in full, please click below:
- Tourism 360° Performance Update - April 2025
- Tourism 360° Performance Update - December 2024
- Tourism 360° Performance Update - May 2024
- Tourism 360° Performance Update - November 2023
- Tourism 360° Performance Update - August 2023
NI Annual and Quarterly Tourism Performance
Summary reports published by Tourism NI
Annual and Quarterly Tourism Performance Statistics are published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Tourism Northern Ireland produces reports to provide an overview of these and other statistics, together with industry sentiment.
Annual Statistics
Full year 2024 figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) relating to overnight trips taken in Northern Ireland (NI) are presented below.
NISRA data indicates a downturn in our closer to home visitor numbers in 2024, broadly stable visitors from Great Britain (GB) and strong growth from Other Overseas visitors. Encouragingly, North American trips were up by one quarter compared to January-December 2023 with NI’s food and drink offering as well as world class attractions being the main influences driving visits.
2024 saw declines in holiday trips and those visiting friends/relatives. Business trips saw a smaller decline, while those visiting for other reasons grew by 10%.
The proportion of overnight trips taken outside Belfast in 2024 (69%) remains unchanged from last year.
NISRA hotel and small service accommodation performance data points to growth in room occupancies and increases of 11% and 8%, respectively, in room sales during January-December 2024. Self-catering occupancy was also up on 2023 levels.
Tourism NI’s sentiment research with NI and ROI consumers (September 2024) highlighted competition from abroad, and the increased impact of cost-of-living on travel behaviours. NISRA’s outbound tourism statistics report declines in NI residents’ trips to all markets except Other Overseas in 2024, suggesting that holidays abroad were prioritised over trips closer to home, possibly linked to a drop in NI’s value for money perception.
Looking ahead to 2025, Tourism NI’s latest consumer sentiment research in NI and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) indicates that stable NI trip intentions were evident for both domestic and ROI consumers.
Quarterly Statistics
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) relating to overnight trips taken by Republic of Ireland residents in Northern Ireland and in the ROI are presented below.
The latest figures published by the CSO indicate that there was a 15% increase in the number of overnight trips taken by ROI residents to NI in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, and a 10% increase in spend.
Conversely, there were declines in the number of domestic trips taken in ROI by ROI residents during January-June 2025 while nights were also down and spend remained flat.
The more positive NI performance is possibly linked to the ongoing perception amongst ROI residents (as reported in Tourism NI’s latest Consumer Sentiment Research) that NI offers better value for money than ROI. Meanwhile the declines in ROI domestic performance are potentially related to the impact of cost-of-living which both Tourism NI’s consumer sentiment and Credit Union Ireland’s ROI Consumer Confidence Index have reported has weighed heavily on the Irish consumer in the first half of this year.
For ROI consumers, the top motivators for taking a break in NI are fun, escapism and relaxation. Tourism NI’s consumer sentiment research and analysis of online review data indicates that ROI residents had a highly positive visitor experience in NI, with our welcome and hospitality one of the highlights of their trip.