August was the busiest month for Northern Ireland's hotels in 2025, with 10.4% of the year's bed-spaces sold, and January the quietest, with 5.7%. July and August together carried 19.6%. The figures are NISRA's, and cover hotels only.
Northern Ireland's hotels, month by month
- Two busiest months
- Other months
When are Northern Ireland's hotels busiest, and when quietest?
August had the most hotel bed-spaces sold in 2025, with 10.4% of the year. January had the fewest, with 5.7%, so August was 1.8 times as busy. July and August together carried 19.6% of the year.1
Where do hotel guests come from?
NISRA publishes the share of hotel arrivals in 2025 by area of residence (not by single country).1
| Area of residence | Share of hotel arrivals |
|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | 22.8% |
| Great Britain | 35.3% |
| Republic of Ireland | 13.6% |
| Europe | 6.6% |
| North America | 13.1% |
| Other Overseas | 8.8% |
What exactly is counted?
NISRA's survey is a census of Northern Ireland hotels. It works out bed-spaces sold by applying each month's bed-space occupancy rate (the share of bed-spaces occupied by paying guests) to the number of hotel beds available.1 Guests from anywhere are included, Northern Ireland residents too. Other kinds of accommodation are not. This is not the same measure as the Eurostat figures on our other European pages, so we do not rank Northern Ireland against them. Figures for the rest of the United Kingdom are not published month by month for 2025.
What these figures cannot tell you
- Hotels only. Guest houses, self-catering and hostels are not in these figures.
- Nights, not queues. A regional total cannot show crowding at one sight.
- One year. These are 2025 figures.
- We have not been there and make no judgement about when is best to visit.
The full year
| Month | Share of year | Bed-spaces sold |
|---|---|---|
| January | 5.7% | 239,285 |
| February | 6.7% | 283,148 |
| March | 7.8% | 329,015 |
| April | 8.2% | 347,768 |
| May | 9.1% | 386,495 |
| June | 9.1% | 384,165 |
| July | 9.2% | 388,039 |
| August | 10.4% | 440,635 |
| September | 8.9% | 374,815 |
| October | 9.0% | 380,316 |
| November | 7.8% | 329,978 |
| December | 8.3% | 349,357 |
Total for 2025: 4,233,016 bed-spaces sold (NISRA's published full-year figure; the months are rounded separately).
Key takeaways
- Busiest month for hotels in 2025: August, with 10.4% of the year.
- Quietest: January, with 5.7%.
- What we would skip: reading these as all visitors: they are hotel bed-spaces, and include local guests.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). We calculated the shares and comparisons ourselves. See how we research.
- Source: NISRA, Northern Ireland Hotel Occupancy 2025, Table 2 (bed-spaces sold by month, 2025) and Table 7 (hotel arrivals by area of residence), published 21 May 2026. Website: www.nisra.gov.uk. Accessed 25 September 2026.
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. NISRA does not endorse this page.
Our calculations. The monthly shares and comparisons are ours, not NISRA's. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.