One of the most popular tourist destinations on the island of Ireland, Titanic Belfast, lost almost 2,000 bookings in a single telephone call recently because of new, more stringent United Kingdom visa rules, it has emerged.
Starting this month, short-term holiday visitors to the UK from all European Union member states other than the Republic must apply online for an electronic travel authorisation costing £16 (€19) before they travel to Britain and Northern Ireland.
However, Northern Ireland faces problems unique to other parts of the UK, since nearly 70 per cent of all of its tourists do not land at UK airports, but, instead, land in Dublin and travel across the Border without checks.
Illustrating the scale of the challenges posed for tourism in the North by the tougher rules, the chief executive of Titanic Belfast, Judith Owens, said the visitor attraction had lost a booking of a 1,800-strong foreign-language student group recently.
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Titanic Belfast lost 2,000 bookings in one phone call: how new Brexit visa rules are hitting Northern Ireland tourism
The group, which will land in Dublin and will travel around the Republic, had planned a couple of days in Northern Ireland to visit the world-famous Titanic centre and other big attractions, but abandoned the Northern leg because of the visa rules.
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“These rules are going to impact everyone,” said Ms Owens.
Now 13 years old, Titanic Belfast is nearing its 10 millionth visitor. Internationally, the Republic and Northern Ireland are marketed together as one destination for holidaymakers by Tourism Ireland, one of 12 North-South bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement.
The UK’s electronic travel authorisation (ETA) rule – which came into force for the United States and other countries in January – is “just something that we didn’t need”, said Ms Owens, adding that many tourist businesses are already struggling.
“Businesses are finding it quite tough in Northern Ireland,” she said, especially in the wake of the last British budget where national insurance rates and other costs were raised sharply by the UK chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Before the pandemic, 80 per cent of all of visitors to Titanic Belfast came from outside Ireland and Britain. Today, that has fallen to just 45 per cent, but the gap has been filled by visitors from the Republic and Britain, though southern numbers have levelled off after a sharp post-Covid rise.
Tourist businesses in the North now fear that the hassle of getting an ETA – even though it is a relatively painless procedure for most online – will lead to foreign holidaymakers abandoning plans to spend a few days of a trip to Ireland in Northern Ireland.
The numbers of people visiting Northern Ireland from continental Europe never fully recovered after the pandemic, Ms Owens said. She said this was partly because Germans have felt less optimistic and are spending less on holidays. In addition, continental visitors need a passport to apply for an ETA, but many French and German tourists only have national ID cards.
