The Northern Ireland Tourist Board has predicted that the number of visitors this year will be well down on 1995. Revised forecasts for the year are for a total of 1,385,000 visitors, down 11 per cent on 1995, and 345,000 holiday visitors down 25 per cent.
In the months following the 1994 IRA and loyalist ceasefires, tourism prospered. In 1995 there were 1,550,000 visitors, up 20 per cent on the year before holidaymaker numbers rose 69 per cent to 461,000.
Before the trouble surrounding the Drumcree stand off in July this year, the NITB had been predicting a further improvement, 1,600,000 visitors and 480,000 holiday visitors.
The board said it was "very disappointing" that the numbers had dropped back but they were still better than before the ceasefires.