North Coast preparing for bumper tourism season
🏌️♂️Major sporting and tourism events are happening across the area in the coming months 🏍
Last updated 1st May 2024
The next 18 months are set to be a “bumper season” for tourism along the north coast, Tourism NI has said.
Over the next year and a half major hallmark evets including: The North West 200, Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series and The Open Championship are being held across the area.
Other popular local events are also set to attract thousands of people. For example, the annual SuperCupNI, RNLI Raft Race, Red Sails Festival, the Ould Lammas Fair, the return of the Airshow in Portrush and many more.
Overall, the sporting spectacles, local shows and attractions are set to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the area and generate millions of pounds for the local economy.
Aine Kearney, Director of Events at Tourism NI, said: “There is a bumper season ahead in the next 18 months in term of great events all culminating with The Open Championship returning to Royal Portrush in 2025.”
“You’ve got a whole range of different events that are happening, hallmark events, like the North West 200 that attracts over 100,000 visitors.
“You’ve got the Red Bull Cliff Dive World Series happening and I know Red Bull is hoping to attract around 20,000 visitors.”
“The Open itself was a huge success in 2019 with just under 240,000 visitors and the R&A who arrange that event are expecting even bigger bumper crowds in 2025.”
Following the success of The Open Championship in 2019 there has been a doubling in value in terms of golf tourism, which is primarily coming from North America, according to Ms Kearney.
She added: “The US continues to be an important market to us. It’s great to say that they have come back, and they have come back in really really big numbers.”
“Also, events that are record breaking, which are sell-out, which deliver experiences again that they’re not getting when they’re hosted in other parts of the world and that’s the one thing that people consistently say.
“They say that Northern Ireland overperforms and completely exceeds their expectations and therefore it’s great to see that word has got out and we are no longer a hidden gem and a secret that people don’t really understand what we are and what we are about.”
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