NI 'now more popular destination'

Belfast is a popular destination for UK holidaymakers

Northern Ireland is becoming a more popular holiday destination for people from the rest of the UK, a new study suggests.

The results were compiled by search engine Yell.com which examined which UK towns were most popular with those searching for a holiday on their site.

Belfast was the fifth most popular place for a getaway for people from London and fourth for Edinburgh people.

Overall, Northern Ireland ranked 19th in the top 50 UK holiday destinations

It finished ahead of such well known destinations as Devon and Cornwall.

Yell.com analysed holiday-related searches on their site for a year up to this summer as part of their study.

"Our site data clearly shows that Northern Ireland is a popular holiday choice for people in the UK," the company's Alicia Andrews said.

Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau figures show that in 2006 Belfast played host to 6.8 million visitors. In the same year, 66% of visitors to Northern Ireland as a whole were from Britain.

Jonathan Smyth, destination marketing manager with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, said: "Visitor numbers to Northern Ireland continue to rise and tourists are spending more while they are here.

"Yell.com's data is further evidence of Northern Ireland's ever increasing popularity as a 'must-see' destination."