North West 200: Portrush and Portstewart businesses gear up for race week

BBC News

05-05-2025

The North West 200 is back in action this week with thousands of people expected to descend upon the north coast for the racing extravaganza.The influx of people also means big business for local vendors in the area. The Causeway Chamber estimated that the total economic impact of the North West 200 last year was more than £20m.President of Causeway Chamber James Kilgore said the event "brings communities together, creates seasonal jobs, and generates long-term tourism interest well beyond race week".
For many businesses, preparations began well in advance of race week.Janet Chestnutt is the manager of The Three Kings Coffee shop in Portstewart, located minutes away from the racing.Janet said the North West 200 is a very busy week for the shop with queues expected to be out of the door."Our stock will be prepared all week now for it, the kitchen will do their own stock and preparation and our deli counter," she said."We have got a busy shop but the events help us so very much economically."
Hotels fully booked
Adele Kenney works at the Inn On The Coast, which overlooks the race track. "We look forward to this week every year," Adele said.
Preparations for putting up a stand for visitors to purchase tickets to watch the race at the venue began two weeks ago."Once the scaffolding goes up, we do have a lot of explaining to do for our customers, but they then become excited about it," she said."I sold two programmes to two people from Germany and they aren't even here for the race, [they] just wanted to know more about it."Adele says the key item to keep the staff going during the busy period is sweets."We take a lot of sugar on board and just keep going and keep on smiling, there is actually a queue of staff wanting to work race Saturday, not the other way around," she said."It is a big week for the inn, you couldn't do without it up here, it kicks off your summer."We are very proud of the North West 200 and we are very proud that it's on our doorstep."
Dylan Neill is the manager of Tides restaurant, which is situated right beside the race track. The Tides usually opens from 12:30 BST, but for the North West it will open at 08:00.He said the preparation is "a lot of work" but the hard work is worth it for his team."We have built our own bar this year for the outside area instead of using beer pumps, so we've made a couple of improvements," Dylan said."It brings so many tourists in, it helps staff get their hours in because usually at this time of year its quiet because of kids in school."Rolling coverage, analysis, features and results throughout the event will be available on the BBC Sport NI website.