Statistics for 2022/23 indicate that 7% of all businesses operating in Northern Ireland are tourism-related and 9% of all jobs in NI are in tourism. Average weekly earnings in tourism are 40% below the average NI weekly wage (£323 compared to £529). It is unsurprising, therefore, that tourism workers are more likely to be in the bottom two quintiles for earnings than the NI average. [3] They are also more likely to be younger workers (aged 16-34) and more likely to have dependent children. In addition to the fact that jobs in tourism are poorly paid, the enormous profits earned by multinational hoteliers and other tourist businesses are likely to go into coffers outside Northern Ireland and thus they may not even indirectly benefit local the economy. It is thus likely that, in the absence of substantive changes in workers’ pay, the promised new Tourism and Hospitality Careers Programme will ‘qualify’ workers for jobs that are poorly paid even by the low standards of Northern Ireland. 

We note that ‘regeneration’ and tourism are presented in tandem. If regeneration across Northern Ireland is dependent on the success of such an exploitative, low-wage sector as tourism, we cannot expect workers to experience the benefits. Whatever percentage of the £1.3 billion that will be invested in tourism across Northern Ireland will further add to the profits of owners of large tourism sector businesses. The Workers Party believes that this money would be a handout to businesses and a carte-blanche to continue employing workers at poverty wages.