Published on : Saturday, July 28, 2018
Spending from overnight trips to Newry, Mourne and Down went up by 47% in 2017 to £90m. In Causeway, Coast and Glens it increased to £194m, going up by 42% in 2016.
Figures for the 11 council districts are compiled annually by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Belfast continues to dominate in Irish tourism.
But its share of overall visitor revenue dipped slightly, reflecting the improving spread of spending beyond the city.
In 2016, it had 39% of market revenues. That has declined to 35% or £328m of Northern Ireland’s £926m total. In Derry and Strabane, tourism spending was estimated at £56m, up by £6m on 2016.
Tourism records have been broken in recent years, with visitor numbers going up due to the pound’s fall in value after the Brexit vote in June 2016.
The Giant’s Causeway is Northern Ireland’s most popular attraction with more than one million visitors. Titanic Belfast ranks second with 760,000 visitors.