A lot more if it were somewhere central like Sheffield or Nottingham, a lot of people would be able to drive there after work and be home at a reasonable time for the midweek games. Unless you live close to somewhere like Liverpool with a connecting port, you can't drive to Belfast. You can't really go there for just a day, you have to fly there and stay the night, which is more expensive than most European cities that might host a tournament of this level, going to Belfast is essentially going abroad and a lot of regular GB fans were actually annoyed it's in Belfast because it could be in a much nicer, cheaper foreign city. I am hoping attendances will pick up for Friday and Saturday night though when more people will be able to make the trip.
There aren't many arenas that would be suitable to host IIHF tournaments. They have had u18s and u20s in Dumfries recently, but it isn't big enough for a men's tournament. Nottingham and Sheffield are suitable but they are popular venues for other events which will make them more money so they weren't interested. I think the only other suitable rink is Coventry which is a bit of a dump, and the new arena in Cardiff which has 2 big dressing rooms with the size of the others being a joke so I couldn't imagine IIHF would be too pleased with that.