AQW 35560/11-15 Written question to the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment
To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for an update on the Programme for Government 2011/15 Commitment 7 to increase visitor numbers to 4.2m and tourist revenue to £676m by December 2014.
Asked by Claire Sugden MLA on 5 September 2014
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 5 September 2014
- Answer due by
- 22 September 2014
- Answered
- 22 September 201417 days after tabling
- Department
- Department for the Economy
- Priority question
- No
Answer
All Programme for Government (PfG) targets on tourism have been achieved to date.
The latest full year Official Statistics on tourism are for 2013 and these figures show that the PfG milestone targets on visitor numbers and tourist revenue were met. Total visitor numbers for 2013 were 4.1 million with visitor expenditure of £723million against targets of 4.1 million visitors and revenue of £637million.
Statistics for the first quarter of 2014 (January to March) were published by NISRA on 17 July 2014. These show that total visitor numbers increased by 2% for the first 3 months of 2014 when compared to January to March 2013, with associated expenditure from these visitors up by 10% when compared to the first quarter of 2013.
Full year statistics for 2014 will not be published until spring 2015.