Tourists make 266,472 trips to Derry/Strabane, staying 820,148 bed nights and generating £63,841,360

New statistics from the Department of the Economy show that of the 266,472 overnight trips made to Derry & Strabane 108,618 (41%) were people travelling for holiday, pleasure or leisure purposes, 142,702 (54%) were people visiting friends or relatives and 15,150 (6%) were people travelling for business or other purposes.

Domestic tourists from the North accounted for 103,458 (39%) of the trips, British tourists accounted for 91,493 (34%) and tourists from elsewhere made 71,521 (27%) overnight trips.

In total 820,148 nights in total were spent on overnight trips in Derry and Strabane.

Of the 820,148 nights, 200,875 (24%) were for holiday, pleasure or leisure purposes, 576,135 were stays by people (70%) visiting friends or relatives, and 43,138 (5%) were for business or other purposes.

All of these overnight trips and stays generated significant revenue for the local economy with total expenditure for the year estimated at £63,841,360.

In total £27,813,405 (44%) of this was generated by holiday-makers; £31,300,090 (49%) by people visiting friends or relatives; and £4,727,865 (7%) was spent by people on business trips.

Domestic tourists from the North spent £16,638,086 (26%); British visitors spent £19,246,224 (30%); and tourists from elsewhere spent £27,957,050 (44%).

Hotel room occupancy across Derry and Strabane in 2023 was 67 per cent whilst bed occupancy was 56 per cent.

B&B, guest house and guest accommodation room occupancy was 37 per cent and bed occupancy was 35 per cent.

There were, meanwhile, 135 self-catering establishments in Derry and Strabane with 193 units, offering 433 rooms and 872 bed spaces.

Figures, up-to-date only to 2022, show there we number of tourism businesses operating in Derry and Strabane increased from 370 in 2015 to 475 in 2023, with these businesses supporting 5,230 tourism jobs in 2022.

The data were included in the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Annual Tourism Statistics for Northern Ireland (NI) for 2023.

The report shows there were an estimated 5.4million overnight trips in the North as a whole, with associated expenditure of £1.2billion. This included overnight trips taken by external visitors to the North and domestic trips taken by local residents.

Tourism minister Conor Murphy said: “Tourism is one of our key successes and a regional economic driver across the north. These figures go to show that the sector is thriving.

"The statistics come on the back of what I know was a difficult period across the industry, but there are real signs of optimism across the sector as we emerge stronger.

"While today’s figures cannot be directly compared to previous statistics, undoubtedly £1.2billion of tourism expenditure is a significant economic boost. I am determined to continue to work with the industry to enable it to grow even further in a way that aligns with my economic vision of a productive, regionally balanced, net zero economy with good jobs.”

External visitors were estimated to take 3.3million overnight trips to the North in 2023. Expenditure associated with these trips was £0.9billion.

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