The success of the 148th Open golf championship at Royal Portrush golf course last week builds upon the findings of a new Tourism NI Visitor Attitude Survey which shows that Northern Ireland exceeds the expectations of the vast majority of visitors.

Titanic Belfast © Tourism NI

A friendly welcome, beautiful scenery and landscapes, quality attractions and a rich historical and cultural offering have helped Northern Ireland meet and exceed the expectations for 97% of leisure visitors with 95% of out-of-state leisure visitors saying they would recommend Northern Ireland to others. The survey was conducted with leisure visitors across Northern Ireland and provides detailed analysis about what they really thought about their time there.

Launching the survey findings, Aine Kearney, Tourism NI Director of Business Support and Events, said: “It is clear that local people and those who work across the tourism and hospitality sector play a major part in the success of Northern Ireland’s tourism offering, as evidenced by the results of our Visitor Attitude Survey.

“Overall these findings demonstrate that Northern Ireland has a tourism offering to be proud of that can attract people from across the world to visit. Once here, it is the welcome they receive and the friendliness, professionalism and experience they have with local people and staff, be it in a hotel, café, bus, taxi or anywhere else, that leads them to recommend Northern Ireland.”

The Dark Hedges, a Game of Thrones filming location in County Antrim © VisitBritain/Ben Selway

The friendliness of local people and staff helped greatly in ensuring leisure visitors had a very positive experience. Responding visitors all marked Northern Ireland’s friendliness at over eight marks out of ten. These included, feeling welcomed on arrival (8.11); experiencing welcoming and friendly staff when eating out (8.54); professional and friendly taxi drivers (8.68) and bus drivers (8.49), with the friendly welcome from staff at their accommodation scoring 8.87 out of ten.

In addition, 94% reported that their accommodation also met or exceeded expectations with quality, value for money and customer service all scoring over eight out of ten.

The most popular reasons for choosing Northern Ireland as a destination were to visit a specific attraction, to see the beautiful scenery and landscapes and to explore the local history and culture. 

Janet Redler, Chief Executive of Janet Redler Travel & Tourism, said: “It is good to hear just how highly visitors to Northern Ireland rate their experience. Everyone knows about the legendary friendliness and hospitality of the people of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland, but it is great to know that the statistics support this. We’re sure that our groups and travellers who visit Northern Ireland will get the warmest of welcomes as they enjoy this wonderful country.”

If you or your group would like to visit Northern Ireland on a tailor-made tour of the UK and Ireland, taking in sights such as Titanic Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway and filming locations for Game of Thrones, please do contact our friendly team today.