Northern Ireland’s troubled history belies its beautiful scenery, cultural attractions and warm hospitality of the locals. After years of sectarian violence, this small country perching on the tip of the Republic of Ireland is finally getting the tourist recognition that it deserves.

With the troubles now fading into history, Northern Ireland is selling itself as a success story, building on the political stability and the lowest rate of unemployment in the UK. Like its neighbour, the Republic of Ireland which has experienced rapid economic growth over the last decade, Northern Ireland has now entered a similar period of development, and the country aims to tap into perhaps it’s most underused source of income: tourism.

And with incredible scenery, plenty of cultural attractions and warm local hospitality, it shouldn’t be too difficult for Northern Ireland to enter the mainstream as a tourist hotspot. Indeed, the world renowned guide book publishers, Lonely Planet, have this year named Northern Ireland as one if its top 10 “must see” destinations.

Rather than try to lock their troubled history into a time capsule never to be opened again, Northern Ireland is instead using it as a tourist attraction. Though many of the impressive sectarian murals are now being replaced with images of national sporting heroes, Belfast’s so called “Terror Trail” has several more permanent attractions in the form of the notorious Crumlin Road Gaol, and some of the sites where violence, such as on Blood Sunday, took place. The thinking behind the promotion of the terror trail is that such history should be remembered, to avoid ever making the same mistakes again.

One Northern Irish local commented:

“It’s all part of the living history of Northern Ireland and is every bit as valid as Giant’s Causeway or other symbols of our country. You can’t just brush all that history under the carpet and I think visitors will gain a valuable insight into Northern Ireland by experiencing these tours that explain our troubled periods. Visiting sites of previous conflict helps people understand history - and understanding history hopefully helps us to avoid repeating it.”

The terror trail is expected to help fuel the steadily growing tourist industry, which has reported high hotel occupancy rates last year (64% annual average), but there’s still plenty of growth to capitalise on; Northern Ireland’s tourist industry currently contributes the lowest direct gross value (a governmental measure of the contribution the economy) of all the counties in the UK, and considerably less than the Republics of Ireland’s contribution (3.4%).

Travel to Northern Ireland is getting increasingly easier, with several budget airlines setting up bases there, and also travel by ferry is an option for those who prefer to support the greener choice. It’s possible to get a ferry to Larne from Fleetwood, or to Belfast from Stranraer, Douglas, Troon or Liverpool.

The time of troubles has passed and the time of tourism has arrived, but Northern Ireland’s violent history is not being forgotten and the terror trail is likely to attract even more visitors from around the world.

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The horrendous May Public Holiday weather and driving deluge which met workforces on their way back to the office on the Tuesday, following a long weekend, has led to a large increase in bookings for vacations overseas. Many UK residents it seems are trying to duck away from the random weather of the UK and go somewhere with a sunnier clime. Over the course of the bank holiday and particularly around Tuesday lunch time, online travel websites like, Thomson and First Choice experienced dramatic increases in online holiday bookings, some even by twenty percent .

The climate of the UK is a leading reason in pushing British holiday makers abroad in record numbers again this year, bookings alone for winter breaks have dramatically increased and demand for short city breaks is ever growing. With the state of global financial diffidence in the UK at the moment, short city breaks are becoming popular with people not geared up to pay out for full price vacations. The typcail cost for a week’s holiday has recently been put at around two thousand pounds, according to a recent survey of around 3 thousand travellers abroad.

The small, city breaks, with cheap prices are rising in popularity, fuelled by costs of 2 weeks abroad compared to shorter breaks, a recent survey by an online travel website, reported that over 20% of holiday makers are choosing for these short city breaks as opposed to only twenty one percent  taking a fortnight or more.

A major reason for the upturn in city breaks and enticement of far away sunny destinations could be due to the pound’s current standing against the Euro. The pound is not very strong against the Euro,at the moment, a Euro costs 78pence. This has led to traditional destination haunts like Greece and Spain take a down turn in bookings with holiday makers looking at cheaper alternatives in countries such as Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria where the pound is stronger.

One of these countries, Romania, have certainly noticed an influx of tourism to their seaside resorts over the last few years. Last year alone the tourism market made 34 million Euros more than in the previous year.  Although, many Britons choose to holiday now in eastern European countries, the infrastructure and facilities does not have enough fascination to make foreign tourists spend more money and so aid their economy. Even still, the predictions for this year is that the amount of tourists should rise by around 12-16%.

Eighteen per cent of people surveyed were also looking to visit countries were the pound is strong. This means that America, with its weak dollar is particularly appealing with cities such as Las Vegas, Las Angeles and New York touted as would be break destinations.

All in all the future insecurity surrounding the strength of the pound against other currencies as well as rising utility, fuel and mortgage payments, will certainly mean that holidays abroad to traditional destinations like Spain and Greece, become less and holidays to eastern European countries like Bulgaria increase, from our need to get the most from our money in today’s hard financial climate.