It's been a summer of hot weather and big events, perfect conditions, you'd think, for a bumper tourism season.

But according to industry leaders the picture across Northern Ireland has been more mixed.

According to Tourism NI "the vast majority of tourism businesses are largely optimistic".

But are they?

Representatives of the hospitality sector say that margins are tight and that, although the number of hotel beds sold is well up, occupancy levels were flat as there are more hotels.

All seem to agree, however, that large events are a means of growing the industry.

Tourism NI says its research "found that the vast majority of tourism businesses are largely optimistic".

Figures released this week by NISRA record that July set a new record for hotel bed and room bookings with nearly 40,000 more rooms sold than the same month a year ago.

But Janice Gault of the NI Hotels Federation says hotels still face challenges.

"I think the summer was very reflective of the weather," she says. "Periods of real heat, periods of coolness and a lot of uncertainty.

"Occupancy was probably slightly down but we now have more hotel rooms so we sold more rooms across a wider portfolio. Events are the big thing. They are the thing that completely change the picture."

The All-Ireland Fleadh's first visit to Belfast was the poster child for this, delivering an estimated 1.65m visits and estimated spend of more than £53m.

Colin Neill from Hospitality Ulster agrees.

He says attracting big events and enticing visitors back must be the ambition.

"Events and experiences are what drive people," he says. "It's what brings tourism from outside and inside the province. The Tourist Board need more money to market in the Republic of Ireland because we need to attract those Fleadh people out around other towns on their next visit."

Away from the Fleadh, many smaller festivals also recorded healthy numbers. In Warrenpoint, for example, estimated numbers at the annual Wake the Giant festival rose by 5,000 to nearly 25,000.

Two large events taking place are Eats & Beats in Newcastle and Armagh's Food & Cider Weekend.

Setting up the festival village in Newcastle is Lynn Campbell.

She says the music and food event is about more than what is experienced on the day.

"This is the last wee boost for summer that will bring a big crowd into Newcastle," she adds.

"But the hope is that people who come here to the festival will then venture up the town and see what it has to offer – not just in summer but to come back throughout the year."

This year is the first time the annual event has been ticketed – that's because in recent times more people have attended than Donard Park can cater for.

"At any one time 6,000 can fit in the festival site," Lynn says. "That will fluctuate but across the weekend we are hoping for up to 15,000 visitors."

In Armagh they are also gearing up for the Orchard County's annual celebration of it's most famous product – the apple.

"We have murder mystery dinners here on Friday and Saturday night and then a tour on Sunday afternoon," says Philip Troughton of The Armagh Cider Company.

"It's obviously excellent for us as it raises the profile of the product, the apples and what's a very young industry here in County Armagh."

But it's an industry Philip feels needs less regulation if it is to achieve its potential.

"The licencing laws, at present, forbid me to sell cider on site. We have diversified into tourism and we take in groups and show them the facilities and the orchards and they can taste the ciders but if you look at any vineyard in France, you can try their product and you can buy their products.

"There has been a slackening but they are still very restrictive."

And it is this suggestion that taxation and regulation is stifling tourism growth that regularly comes up in discussion and debate.

This week the level of hospitality tax in NI compared to the Republic and its impact was discussed at Westminster.

Back in Belfast restaurateur Simon McCance says that 40% of his turnover is in some way tax related.

"There's 20% on VAT, our rates bills are big, then there's NI Contributions and other things like waste disposal, water and minimum wage increases," he says.

He says tourism has been steady but there are external pressures.

"August is usually a good month for us with tourism and you do see people from all over the world coming here but I would think that we haven't seen as many Americans coming here as we have in the past, which I'm pretty sure is due to the cost of living."

This summer, to tackle cost of living pressures, the government introduced a short term reduction in VAT charged on family days out.

Among the firms to avail of the scheme was Life Adventure Centre in Castlewellan.

According to Martin McMullan it proved beneficial.

"We were able to keep prices down and offer some special offers through the summer," he says adding that he would like to see it in place permanently.

"We saw was a good mix of national and international visitors. We are seeing more and more of them coming to places like this rather than just to Belfast for the day."

But perhaps the final thought on summer 2026 should go to the ice cream industry.

Michael Nugent of Nugelato has 13 ice cream outlets across Northern Ireland, including some in seaside locations.

He says the good summer weather was reflected in different consumer patterns compared to previous years, especially in his Newcastle shop.

"Because the weather was so good we were steadily busy rather than being busy in mad bursts as you would be in a normal summer," he says.

"People didn't have to rush to the seaside because they thought it was their only chance. So trade was up but it was a more steady flow."

However, Nugent says it balanced out a very "wet" start to the year.

"The cost of doing business only goes up so you are also trying to absorb that too," he adds.