Why invest in Northern Ireland tourism

Why invest in Northern Ireland tourism?

More than 1 billion people travel every year.

Travel and tourism contributes more than US$ 5.75 trillion to world economic activity – just over 9% of global GDP. And it supports 236 million jobs – just over 8% of jobs globally.

Over the past ten years, Northern Ireland has fought hard for its share of the growing travel and tourism market and has done remarkably well.

Today over 3 million visitors spend more than £500 million annually on the Northern Ireland experience but we believe we can do much better.

By 2020 a focused effort could increase employment supported by tourism to 50,000 jobs, the number of visitors to 4.5 million and generate £1 billion for the Northern Ireland economy every year - this is a serious industry.

Realising potential requires action. Click the now updated One voice. One team - One Year On for an update on what we have achieved together.

One year on we have positioned tourism at the core of Northern Ireland’s economic development. The launch of One voice. One team has proved to be an immensely important and successful initiative, the first of its kind, for the tourism industry. Close to 100 organisations joined with the Board in our campaign.

Our engagement produced many excellent suggestions which have influenced the work of our Policy Team to bring tourism to the forefront of policy development and legislative change.

For reference click here to view the initial Campaign for Tourism document launched in October 2010.