Visitors from the Republic of Ireland continue to drive NI tourism

Northern Ireland may also be viewed as offering better value for money than the Republic for short breaks and there has been increased marketing by Tourism NI.

The 2025 figures also suggest that spending by GB visitors and NI residents also increased after a weaker 2024.

The NI Statistics and Research Agency, which produced the figures, said: “The NI domestic tourism market has shown promising growth in 2025 after a sharp decline in 2024.

“However, despite an encouraging recovery in 2025 (12% increase in trips to 1.8m from 2024), NI overnight trips has not yet returned to the 2.1m NI resident overnight trips recorded in 2023.”

The main negative in the figures was a small decline in international visitors.