Twice as many visitors from North visit the South

Monday, January 24, 2022

Recently a conference on tourism has been told that more than twice as many cross-Border tourists go from Northern Ireland to the Republic rather than the other way around.

ESRI put forward a shared Island report on cross-Border trade and services and found roughly 1.4 million tourism trips are made from North to South with 600,000 trips made the other way in spite of the population of the Republic remaining 2.5 times that of Northern Ireland.

Catherine Martin, the Minister for Tourism, while speaking at a forum on cross-Border tourism said that there was scope to “grow the flow” in both directions “for the benefit of the entire island.”

The Minister told a Shared Island forum the Government is investing in the cross-Border Ulster Canal and Narrow Water Bridge projects which will provide blueways and greenways that will grow sustainable tourism in the Border areas.

“In my own generation, people have built up a certain image in their minds and that takes time to break down.”
Mr Gibbons said Tourism NI has done a great deal of work to “bring down those perceptions that linger so to speak and they have built a very credible product that makes it a much more attractive place.”

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