Forget the five-star hotel, candlelit dinner and champagne on ice, Northern Ireland couples appear to be heading to the great outdoors for their romantic getaways.
amping equipment sales soared during these extended days of staycation, with two-person tents and mats proving popular items here, according to a study by a major retailer.
Cotswold Outdoor gathered data on sales and internet searches and from across all areas of the UK between 2019 and this year, including the 11 local council districts, to find the keenest campers in the country.
And it emerged that equipment sales here rose up by 60% year-on-year in 2020, though with wide differences depending on the council area. This compares to 40% across the UK.
There was a trend here for the most popular items over the three years – people snapped up sleeping bags, mats and two-person tents in big numbers, according to Cotswold Outodor, which operates two stores here.
There were no kids’ sleeping bags or picnic items at the top, though sales of those rose the highest in the UK as a whole.
“Most popular items in Northern Ireland were sleeping mats, two-person tents, and camping stoves, suggesting that couples were keen to go on a romantic getaway in the wilderness,” the company concludes.
Mid Ulster and Mid and East Antrim saw the highest rise in sales, a spectacular 300% increase each.
All areas posted increases – except Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon. From 2019 to 2020, sales plummeted by 25%. And it came in at 104th of 105, just ahead of Powys in Wales, which has three areas in the bottom five.
According to the data, Ards and North Down came in a number ten in the overall league table of the keenest campers, followed by Belfast people at 21 and Newry, Mourne and Down at 38.
Sleeping mats were the most popular items among people from Mid and East Antrim, Mid Ulster, Fermanagh and Omagh and the Newry area, while sleeping bags were snapped up by those in the Causeway Coast and Glens and Lisburn and Castlereagh.
Stoves were the top item in Belfast, North Down and Ards, two-person tents in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon. Antrim and Newtownabbey like their table and chairs.
The company drew up the league table based on the number of purchases made per 100,000 residents in each area in 2020-21, the percentage change in camping equipment sales 2019-2020, camping related searches and the number of products sold over the year to 2021.
With international travel restrictions in place for the past year and a half, people in the UK have taken the opportunity to leave their homes and explore the countryside, the company said.
“Wiltshire, England claimed the top spot, earning the UK’s keenest campers title. Followed by Bristol, England in second place and Stirling, Scotland taking the third place,” it revealed.
Cotswold Outdoor was not immediately able to break down or reveal actual sales figures, either at the area level or overall.
Pre-pandemic, its parent company, Outdoor and Cycle Concepts, was facing a challenging period and carried out a restructuring plan that included the closure of several stores and more of a focus on online retail.
The company is due to file its 2020 results later this month, but posted an overall loss of £2.3m on turnover of approximately £180m in 2019.
