Background and Policy Objectives
3.The Act makes a number of amendments to the Tourism (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (“the Tourism Order”). These were generated from a number of sources including previous engagement with key stakeholders.
4.The Act introduces arrangements to reduce the frequency of Northern Ireland Tourist Board (“NITB”) statutory inspections of tourist accommodation from an annual basis to once every four years. The Act also makes provision for tourism accommodation providers to make a return to NITB in the years between statutory inspections. This will ensure that establishments continue to comply with the minimum standards required by legislation and thereby underpin the system of statutory inspections. These changes represent a positive reduction in the regulatory burden placed on tourist accommodation providers.
5.The Act makes provision for the transfer of responsibility for tourist accommodation grants from Invest NI to NITB. It also changes the mechanism whereby the chairman of NITB is appointed (this change facilitates the appointment of a chairman by external competition rather than from among the Board members).