To the Northern Ireland economy, music tourists contributed £136m

Friday, July 21, 2023

The music figures of UK imply almost 270,000 music tourists toured within or to Northern Ireland to listen to live music.

In music tourism, people travel to other cities or towns to watch a performance or a festival.

Last year, big names that played in were Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish. Also, names like Iron Maiden, Biffy Clyro, Westlife, Little Mix and Sister Sledge played in Northern Ireland in 2022 with huge success.

According to the report – Here, There and Everywhere – published by UK Music, last year, more than one million people went to the UK from different foreign countries to take part in concerts.

Within UK, roughly 13m music tourists toured the country to attend different types of gigs.

However the report of the industry body includes a breakdown of music tourism in various countries and provinces. It said that within Northern Ireland, almost 250,000 people travelled to various cities to be present at live concerts or festivals last year as just for music, 20,000 people travelled to the country.

To the Northern Ireland financial system, the report calculated that activity contributed £136m and sustained almost 1,280 jobs.

Also, the UK Music evaluation highlighted other tourism linked to music like the Belfast Music Walking Tour.

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