BRINGING THE WORLD TO BELFAST - Visit Belfast Annual Review 2016/2017
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Visit Belfast Annual Review 2016/2017 BRINGING THE WORLD TO BELFAST
04 Bringing the world to Belfast
Foreword from Visit Belfast Chair Howard Hastings
06 Success in every area
Overview from Visit Belfast Chief Executive Gerry Lennon
08 THE YEAR IN NUMBERS
10 WORKING TOGETHER
Visit Belfast partnership
12 Marketing Communications
Marketing campaigns, web and digital, publications and PR
18 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Business Tourism, Leisure Trade and Cruise
28 Hotel INVESTMENT
30 Visitor Servicing
36 The Year that Was
40 SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTS
42 VISIT BELFAST BOARD
VISITBELFAST.COM 3
Bringing the
world to Belfast
Visit Belfast Chairman
Dr Howard Hastings OBE
Visit Belfast’s mission is clear... As a DMMO, a key aim of Visit
to bring the world to Belfast. Belfast is to increase the economic
As the city region’s Destination benefit that tourism contributes to
Marketing Management the city economy. 2016 saw 1.5m
Organisation (DMMO), we overnight trips made to Belfast,
achieve this through our sales, generating £334m, and supporting
marketing and visitor servicing nearly 18,000 jobs*. This means
activity which impacts across that Belfast delivered almost a third
the city break, cruise, business of all overnight trips and nearly
tourism and group tour markets. 40% of overnight visitor income
I’m pleased to report that in to Northern Ireland, showing that
2016/17, Visit Belfast’s efforts Belfast is increasingly driving and
generated: supporting the regional visitor
economy.
• 540,000 bed nights
• 143,000 cruise visitors Nearly three-quarters of overnight
• 750,000 visitor enquiries trips (72%) were made by visitors
from outside Northern Ireland,
These outputs delivered an reflecting the international stand-
economic impact of £122m – a out Belfast provides for Northern
significant return of £1:32 on the Ireland. The attraction of the Belfast
combined investment of Visit brand, combined with the success
Belfast’s budget of £3.6m. of cooperative sales and marketing
activity, is increasing the number of
leisure and business visitors from
our key markets in Great Britain,
4 VISITBELFAST.COM * NISRA Local Government District statistics, 2016
£334m 1.5m
tourism spend overnight trips to Belfast
Best TIC 72%
award for 12th time of overnight trips made
by visitors outside NI
Republic of Ireland, Europe and satisfaction is the responsibility of expansion of hotel capacity in the
farther afield. everyone, and something I’m glad city’s history. The challenge for
to say we’re excelling in – Best ‘Team Belfast’ will be generating
May I take the opportunity to TIC award for the 12th time for the the extra demand required to fill
thank all our funders and industry Visit Belfast Welcome Centre, the the city’s additional capacity, and
partners whose collaborative World’s Leading Visitor attraction that’s where marketing investment
investment and support has in Titanic Belfast and a growing becomes even more critical.
enabled this collective success: list of international accolades,
Belfast City Council, Tourism including being named among I truly believe that this is
Northern Ireland, Tourism National Geographic’s top places Belfast’s time to shine, and
Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, to travel for food, Belfast has Visit Belfast is passionate
Ards and North Down Borough emerged as a ‘capital of cool’ in about working collaboratively
Council, Lisburn and Castlereagh the eyes of the World. with industry, local and central
City Council, 500+ businesses government to deliver targeted
including our strategic partners Tourism is key to developing marketing and sales, and effective
Translink, Diageo NI, Value Cabs, a sustainable, resilient and visitor servicing that bring the
Victoria Square and Belfast One buoyant economy. Local and best return on investment. I’m
and corporate partners Titanic central government must continue confident that this ‘Team Belfast’
Belfast, Hastings Hotels, the to invest in and support the ethos will make Belfast’s ambition
Belfast Waterfront and Ulster Hall industry if we are to reach the of doubling the tourism economy
and Flybe. This has been a true ambitious target, set out in the a reality.
‘Team Belfast’ effort. Belfast Agenda, of doubling the
value of overnight tourism to
It is essential that those who Belfast by 2021. The industry has
visit become ambassadors for already set the wheels in motion,
Belfast. Customer care and visitor embarking on the most significant
VISITBELFAST.COM 5
Success in
every area
Visit Belfast Chief Executive
Gerry Lennon
Throughout 2016/17, Visit Belfast phenomenon and the reopening
partnered with 500+ tourism and extension of the Belfast
partners and the public sector Waterfront. Promoting a balanced
to deliver a compelling mix of portfolio of leisure and business
marketing, sales and visitor tourism products and services to
servicing platforms across the our key segments has delivered
business and leisure sectors, the optimum customer mix for
contributing £122m in to the Belfast. Meanwhile, investment in
local economy and a return on the city’s tourism infrastructure
investment of £1:32. and products continues apace,
offering even more and better
Our sales and marketing activity reasons to visit.
brought people from across
the world to Belfast, generating The Visit Belfast model is a
540,000 bed nights; and once collaboration between the public
here our visitor servicing team and private sectors, providing
engaged with over 750,000 a flexible and agile vehicle to
tourists, to ensure they made the promote the city near and far,
most of their precious time here. working with airlines, conference
venues, tour operators and
The strategy of marketing Belfast accommodation providers,
as a city break, conference, across marketing campaigns,
day, cruise ship and group tour sales missions and digital
destination plays to the city’s communications. This model is
strengths, including Titanic the very definition of collaboration
Belfast, the Game of Thrones and cooperation, delivering value
6 VISITBELFAST.COM
£122m 540,000
economic benefit bed nights
750,000 143,000
visitor enquiries cruise visitors
for money for the public sector, Our autumn-winter marketing The tourism economy has risen
and reducing duplication by campaign encouraged people from year-on-year, thanks to the
pooling marketing and visitor across the Island of Ireland to ‘Find industry’s commitment and
servicing resources. your Belfast’. Generating 350,000 growing confidence to invest in
hotel bed nights the campaign their own products and services,
A busy year provided a welcome uplift in continued investment from the
The 2016 European visitors from the Republic of Ireland public sector in the city’s tourism
Championships presented a over a crucial trading period. infrastructure and investment by
once in a lifetime opportunity to both the public and private sectors
promote Belfast and Northern Hotel occupancy continued in Visit Belfast’s activity. Without
Ireland to thousands of football to reach new heights (in 2016, this support, Visit Belfast would
fans in Paris, embracing both annual room occupancy was simply not be able to deliver the
digital and traditional methods 79.5%), balancing increases cooperative marketing, sales and
of communications and visitor in both weekday and weekend visitor servicing activities that
servicing. demand generated from leisure have been so successful this year.
and business visitors. Meanwhile,
An opportunity to host the 2017 we also welcomed 143,000 cruise As we move into the next phase
IDF World Dairy Summit arose visitors who provide significant of Belfast’s tourism journey it’s
in 2016, which the Belfast team business for our visitor attractions, this commitment to partnership,
successfully bid for and won. This tours operators and retailers. collaboration and team ethos
conference alone will bring 1,000 All of this, crucially, supports that will ensure that Belfast
international delegates to the employment, and in 2016, Belfast’s achieves our ever-growing and
city and generate an estimated tourism industry supported challenging tourism aspirations
economic benefit of £1.9m. one-third (around 18,000) of all and ambitions.
Northern Ireland’s hospitality jobs.
VISITBELFAST.COM 7
THE YEAR
IN NUMBERS
2016/17 was another year of success, with Visit Belfast
delivering in every area. Here are some of the highlights.
£1:32
Return on
Investment
2m CONFERENCES
77
Visitors to our website and 1.4m Generating almost 95,000 bed
social media engagements. nights contributing £42 million to
local economy.
754,338 140m
Visitor enquiries resulting in ‘Opportunities to See’ a
over £15 million gain for the positive story about Belfast
local economy. around the globe through
active PR and marketing.
8 VISITBELFAST.COM
£122m
Economic impact to the
local economy.
445,036
Bed nights
From 12 campaigns,
93%
of Visit Belfast partners
generating £58 million satisfied with their
for the local economy. partnership.
143,000
Cruise visitors
on 83 ships.
VISITBELFAST.COM 9
Working
together
93%
Visit Belfast’s public-private partnership model
delivers real results for the city. Together, we are
increasing visitor numbers and spend to the city
region, supporting jobs and giving value for money for
public and private sector partners.
satisfaction
Visit Belfast provides our partners with platforms to market
92%
the city to visitors in key markets in the Republic of Ireland,
Great Britain and Europe, and while they are here through
the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre. Our partnership approach
provides cohesion for the marketing of the city, as well as
integrating budgets and delivering value for money and return
on marketing investment. good value for money
Our research shows that this approach works. In our most
recent annual satisfaction survey, 93% of partners were
satisfied with their partnership (up from 89% in 2015/16),
with 92% saying that their partnership represented value for
money (up from 83%).
10 VISITBELFAST.COMTEAMWORK
THAT DELIVERS
Our gratitude goes to our funders, corporate and strategic partners,
and our 500 + industry partners for their continued support.
Funders and supporters:
Strategic partners:
Corporate partners:
Regional tourism partners:
Other key partners:
VISITBELFAST.COM 11Marketing
Communications
Visit Belfast’s Marketing and Communications team provides the
‘shop window’ through which Belfast is promoted to leisure and city
break visitors. Through web and digital platforms, targeted marketing
campaigns, publications and public relations, we highlight the best of
Belfast, turning prospective visitors into tourists.
Campaigns regional tourism partners Lisburn &
Over the course of the financial Castlereagh City Council and Ards
year, Visit Belfast activated 12 and North Down Borough Council
marketing campaigns, generating to promote products in the Greater
445,000 hotel bednights and an Belfast area. ‘Belfast Plus’ provides
economic benefit of £58m. These dedicated web pages, blogs,
campaigns were spread across a e-zines, social media content, and
number of geographic markets; six more to encourage visitors to stay
targeted the Great Britain market longer and spend more in Belfast
– in key direct access areas like and Northern Ireland.
London, Glasgow and Edinburgh;
three campaigns targeted Web and digital
direct access cities in Europe – Online channels continue to grow
Amsterdam, Milan and Paris; and in popularity, and Visit Belfast’s
the final three campaigns targeted website provides visitors with all
the domestic and ROI markets. the information they need for a
great stay in the city. In 2016/17,
Visit Belfast worked closely with visits to visitbelfast.com totalled
many partners to activate these almost 2m, equating to over 5m
campaigns, including carriers page views. The content supplied
such as Aer Lingus, Flybe, KLM, on visitbelfast.com varies across
Stena Line and P&O, local tourism event listings, partner listings,
industry partners, Belfast City hotel offers and visitor information
Council, and Tourism Ireland. about the city. Content marketing,
social media, marketing campaign
You can read more about our activity and search engine
multi-channel ‘Find Your Belfast’ optimisation all help drive traffic to
campaign on page 16. the website.
Belfast Plus Social media
Recognising Belfast’s role as a Visit Belfast grew its social media
gateway to Northern Ireland, and following to more than 287,000
the fact that visitors to Northern this year. More than 4,000 posts
Ireland do not restrict themselves across Facebook, Twitter and
to administrative boundaries, Instagram generated 1.4m online
Visit Belfast worked closely with engagements (clicks, shares, likes
etc.) – a 100% increase on the
previous year.
12 VISITBELFAST.COM12 445k £58m
marketing campaigns bed nights economic benefit
VISITBELFAST.COM 135m 1.8m 230
page views emails sent e-zines
14 VISITBELFAST.COM287k 4k 100%
social media social media increase in social media
followers posts posts from last year
Email marketing Public relations
With a subscriber database of Visit Belfast’s PR team was
over 100,000 email addresses, directly involved in 391 press
Visit Belfast sent 1.8m emails articles across print, broadcast
in 2016/17. This was across 230 and online media, generating more
e-zines covering hotel offers, than 140m opportunities to see a
events, and tourism industry positive story about Belfast. This
developments. included coverage in the Sunday
Times, the Guardian, Buzzfeed,
Condé Nast Traveller and National
Geographic.
VISITBELFAST.COM 15Campaigns in action
#FindYourBelfast
‘Find Your Belfast’ spanned Across a focused, five-month
both the autumn season and period, Visit Belfast’s activity
the crucial Christmas trading delivered more visitors for
period, targeting the Northern the city, a rise in those who
£43m
Ireland and Republic of Ireland stayed overnight or longer, and,
markets, promoting the best crucially, much greater spending
of Belfast’s events, food and in our hotels, restaurants, cafés,
drink, night life and retail. bars, shops, in our transport
‘Find Your Belfast’ acted as an facilities and world-class visitor economic impact
invitation to visitors to discover attractions.
for themselves what Belfast
has to offer. While the majority of campaign
resources were focused on the
Thanks to support from partners domestic market, a strong Euro
Belfast City Council, Belfast against the pound prompted Visit
350,000
One, Belfast Chamber of Trade Belfast, with the support of the
and Commerce, Victoria Square, local tourism industry, to react
Castle Court, Hastings Hotels to this unique opportunity by
and Translink, Visit Belfast was campaigning in the ROI, reminding
in market across the Island of our audience of the abundance hotel bed nights
Ireland with close to half a million of events, things to do, great food
pounds’ worth of campaign and value for money to be found
activity from September 2016 in Belfast. Our ability to react
through to January 2017. quickly led to the development
of a multi-channel campaign
The success of the ‘Team communicated across outdoor,
Belfast’ approach, utilising public radio, TV, email communications,
and private sector buy-in, can
clearly be seen by the multi-
million-pound economic return
generated for the city which was
digital display, social media
(paid and organic) and a leaflet
distributed through transport
hubs and a direct mailing.
71m
achieved by the commitment opportunities to see
of our industry partners and across media and
funders who backed and
shared in these collaborative, digital channels
promotional campaigns.
16 VISITBELFAST.COMVISITBELFAST.COM 17
Business
Development
Visit Belfast’s Business Development Team is responsible for
bringing conference, cruise and travel trade business to the city.
The team adopt a targeted and sector-focused approach to all
sales activity and this has ensured excellent results.
18 VISITBELFAST.COMA Landmark Year to attend three major European Show in London and also hosted
This year was an important and international events for private dinners at each including
year for business tourism in conferencing: IMEX America, IMEX one where special guest and
Belfast and Northern Ireland, Frankfurt and IBTM Barcelona. Belfast local, Eamonn Holmes
with the reopening of the Belfast helped promote Belfast as a key
Waterfront. You can read more Visit Belfast also attended events destination.
about the city’s new state-of-the- run by Tourism Ireland in a number
art conference facility on page 22. of key cities, including London Connect16 – the first business
where Visit Belfast had a presence tourism showcase of its kind -
Over the course of the 12 at the ‘Ireland Meets the West was a key event in 2016. Held in
months, Visit Belfast secured 77 End’ event in November 2016. Dublin, it was a showcase for
conferences for Belfast, which will This gave Belfast exposure to 41 global meeting organisers and
generate an estimated 95,000 top British meetings and events corporates who are involved in
bednights and £42m for the local professionals, with the aim of organising events in Ireland.
economy. growing business tourism from Clients were invited to experience
Britain to the island of Ireland. the latest in technology, product,
Trade Shows venues and hotels on offer on the
In 2016/17 Visit Belfast Visit Belfast hosted its own stand Island of Ireland.
partnered with Tourism Ireland at Confex and The Meetings
VISITBELFAST.COM 19Corporate Roadshow (April 2016) Event Highlights 2016/17
This week long roadshow More than 74 conferences were
focused on the NI Year of Food held in Belfast in 2016/17. These
and Drink. Bringing a flavour are just a few of them:
of Northern Ireland to the GB, • Association of Surgeons of GB
the team visited over 100 of the and Ireland (ASGBI) Annual
UK’s top agents over four days, International Surgical Congress
combining networking with sales • World Credit Union Conference
presentations, hosted meals and • European Federation for Animal
even a ‘gin journey®’ in the city of Science
London Distillery. • British Orthopaedic Association
Conference
• European Association of Zoos
and Aquaria Conference
Ambassadors
Conference tourism brings This network of over 1,000 local
important mid-week and professionals work in partnership
year-round trade to the city’s with Visit Belfast to bid for national
hotels, conference venues, and international conferences.
restaurants and visitor attractions, Spanning all sectors – from agri-
complementing Belfast’s growing food to oncology – these experts
leisure market. in their fields have helped the
city secure millions in business
While these conferences are tourism revenue.
undoubtedly the result of hard
work from the tourism industry This year, we recruited 94 new
in the city, and an increasing ambassadors, and 58 of the 77
portfolio of products that conferences that were confirmed
make Belfast a destination of during the year were secured with
choice, what many don’t know the help of an ambassador.
is that some 75% of this year’s
conference wins were secured
with the help of the Belfast
Ambassador Programme.
20 VISITBELFAST.COMBig Wins
October 2017
£1.9m ECONOMIC BENEFIT
77 conferences were secured for Belfast during this
year. Below are just a few of them.
1,000
Delegates
IDF World Dairy Summit
December 2019 November 2017 October 2018
£2.2m ECONOMIC BENEFIT £1m ECONOMIC BENEFIT £1m ECONOMIC BENEFIT
1,500 700
Delegates Delegates
700
Delegates
British Ecological Society European Conference on European Symposium on
Annual Meeting Personalised Medicine Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP)
June 2019
£1.4m ECONOMIC BENEFIT
March 2019 & 2022
1,500
£2.7m ECONOMIC BENEFIT
1,400
Delegates
College of Occupational
Therapists
June 2018
£1.9m ECONOMIC BENEFIT
Delegates
Microbiology Society
Conference 2019
1,000
Delegates
WHO Healthy Cities
VISITBELFAST.COM 21Belfast
Waterfront
“The city has been extremely
helpful and welcoming. I have been
organising events for 13 years, and I found
Belfast to be the friendliest host city.
There is a real buzz - everyone knew about
our conference and joined in to ensure
that we, and our members, had a truly
memorable experience.”
Bhavnita Patel
General Manager at ASGBI
22 VISITBELFAST.COMA ‘watershed’ year
for business tourism
Reopened in May 2016, the new City Council, Tourism Northern
Belfast Waterfront provides Belfast Ireland and the European
with a 7,000m2 events space, Regional Development Fund,
capable of hosting up to 2,000+ under the European Sustainable
delegates across a wide range of Competitiveness Programme for
conferencing, meeting, exhibition Northern Ireland, and administered
and flexible breakout spaces. by Tourism Northern Ireland.
After years of selling the venue The first conference to take place
‘off-plan’, 2016 was the year that in the newly reopened venue was
Visit Belfast, and our partners the Association of Surgeons of
at Belfast Waterfront were able GB and Ireland (ASGBI) Annual
to demonstrate that Belfast has International Surgical Congress,
the capability to host large-scale and since then, the Belfast
conferences and events in this Waterfront has hosted many
multi-purpose venue. key events, including World
Credit Union Conference, which
The £29.5m extension project generated £3.7m for the local
was jointly funded by Belfast economy in July.
Visit Belfast Chair Howard Hastings and Chief Executive Gerry Lennon with Belfast
Waterfront and Ulster Hall Chair Ellvena Graham, Chief Executive Catherine Toolan
and Belfast Waterfront Board Members, Alan Dixon, Patrick McClughan, Simon
Goldrick and Robert Holt.
VISITBELFAST.COM 23Leisure Trade
178 5,600
leads generating: day visitors
Belfast has been increasingly Visit Belfast’s travel trade focus in 2016/17 was
establishing itself on the tourism threefold:
map, no less so than with inbound - Meeting the trade in North America, ROI, GB
travel trade from across the world. and Europe
Travel trade plays an important - Growing our database, profiling and
role in driving accommodation segmenting each operator to better
sales and occupancy and understand each business, its clients and
delivering significant footfall to how we can assist them to bring more visitors
the city’s attractions, tours and to Belfast and spend more time here.
activity providers. - Identifying travel trade who currently bring
business to ROI, but not NI, then developing
relationships with these operators in order to
identify suitable itineraries for their clients
Sales activity included account management,
attending trade shows and exhibitions, sales
calls, familiarisation (fam) trips, research and
market intelligence, and product updates with
24 VISITBELFAST.COM9,100 £1.9m 15,000
overnight visitors value bed nights
Tourism Ireland trade teams. Additionally, as Trade shows and workshops
part of 2016’s World Travel Market, Visit Belfast Visit Belfast partnered with Tourism Ireland to
hosted a private drinks reception which brought attend:
together key international buyers and the • Ireland Workshop, Amsterdam
Belfast trade. • German B2B Workshop
• Celtic Connections (Glasgow)
Getting the message out • Nordic Trade Workshops
2016/17 saw Visit Belfast introduce monthly • Canadian Roadshow
travel trade e-zine communications to nearly
30,000 travel trade contacts around the world. Other shows and workshops:
Regular e-zine communication keeps Belfast • Explore GB (Visit Britain)
front of mind to these operators, ensuring their • Britain and Ireland Marketplace (ETOA)
knowledge is in depth and up-to-date. • Global European Marketplace (ETOA)
• Meet The Buyer (Tourism NI)
Together with Tourism Ireland, we worked on a • Coach & Group workshop (Tourism NI)
successful series of webinars, being particularly • Discover Northern Ireland Workshop
well received by travel agents and operators in (UK Inbound)
North America.
VISITBELFAST.COM 25Cruise Belfast
On the crest of a wave
Cruise tourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism sectors and has
become an important element of Belfast’s tourism mix, attracting significant
numbers of day visitors to Belfast and Northern Ireland, including considerable
numbers of international and first time visitors. This adds to an increasingly
buoyant tourism economy in the city region between April and September.
The UK is the largest cruise market outside Belfast’s success as a cruise destination
North America. Cruise Belfast is a unique runs parallel to the increasing attractiveness
partnership between Visit Belfast and Belfast of the city region. This has been helped
Harbour, providing a joint sales and marketing by considerable investment in tourism
platform to promote Belfast as cruise port infrastructure and products, which has greatly
of call and tourism destination. Marketing improved the tourist offer we now have. Over
and sales activity focuses on retaining and the years, Cruise Belfast has developed close
expanding on current and long-standing relationships with shore excursions companies
relationships with cruise lines and operators, and ground handlers appointed by the cruise
as well as converting new sales leads into solid line to maximise the opportunities for cruise
bookings in order to achieve further growth. As passengers to explore Belfast and beyond,
part of the partnership, Visit Belfast manages benefiting the wider Northern Ireland tourism
all the on-the-day visitor servicing activity economy.
down at the port, the aim being to enhance the
welcome and maximise the visitor experience. Cruise Belfast continues to target further growth
This includes having staff and volunteers in cruise calls. Ongoing investment which
available on the quay side, coordinating the continues to increase the variety of things to do,
shuttle bus service, providing a daily what’s on allows us to encourage repeat cruise visits as
guide, and an entertainment programme for well as win first time visitors.
larger ships.
Cruise Belfast welcomed 83 cruise ship visits
in 2016. The record number of cruise calls,
brought a record number of cruise passengers
to Northern Ireland: 143,000 cruise visitors in
total, confirming that cruise tourism is truly on
crest of a wave.
Cruise operators including Fred Olsen, Princess,
Celebrity, P&O and Azamara now include
Belfast on their British Isles or Northern Europe
£5.9m
cruise itineraries. estimated value
26 VISITBELFAST.COM2015 59 116,792
2016
83 143,491
VISITBELFAST.COM 27Hotel Investment
Driving City Development
Affordable and improving air access, investment in world-class
attractions and experiences, and concerted tourism marketing is
resulting in an increasing number of visitors coming to Belfast, many
needing a bed to spend the night in.
Tourism’s success has seen hotel demand grow September 2017 will see the opening of the
year-on-year – in 2015 and 2016 hotel room much-anticipated Titanic Hotel, transforming the
sales exceeded 1m rooms per year for the first former Harland & Wolff headquarters and historic
time, and in the 2016 calendar year, annual room Drawing Offices in to a luxury 119-room hotel.
occupancy was at 79.5%. Room sales were at
such a high level that for three months of 2016, Five hotels will add almost 1,000 new rooms
monthly room occupancy exceeded 90%, while in 2018 alone. Recognised brands AC Marriott,
eight out of 12 months surpassed 75%. Hampton by Hilton and Maldron will be added to
the city’s accommodation portfolio. In addition,
Tourism is now recognised as one of Belfast’s the city will welcome Signature Living Group’s
key economic drivers. Belfast City Council’s George Best Hotel on Bedford Street and
community planning document, The Belfast Hastings Hotels will unveil the new 304-room
Agenda, sets ambitious targets for growth, Grand Central Hotel.
including the doubling of tourism revenue
by 2021. Investment in Belfast’s tourism With ever more reasons to visit, potential
infrastructure therefore couldn’t be more tourists will have an increasingly wide range of
obvious and more welcome, with a number top-class accommodation to welcome them to
of city centre development sites allocated to Belfast.
new hotel development, adding to the recent
completion of the Belfast Waterfront expansion
and the opening of HMS Caroline.
Local hoteliers are at the centre of tourism
investment: in 2016/17, the Beannchor Group -
owners of the 5-star Merchant Hotel - opened
the stylish 43-room Bullitt Hotel, whilst the “The city’s renaissance
Loughview Leisure Group embarked on an has been led by
expansion programme that will add 55 rooms investment in tourism
to the boutique Ten Square Hotel, kick-starting
an unprecedented period of hotel development
and higher education”
in the city’s history. Deloitte Belfast
Crane Survey 2017
28 VISITBELFAST.COM80%
of hotel rooms were
occupied in 2016
Hotel Development
(by end of 2018)*
7
new hotels
1,200
new hotel rooms
over 1/3
more hotel capacity
*from 2016 onwards
VISITBELFAST.COM 29“This place is a
must for any visit to
Belfast. Should you
require anything
from bookings,
information, to
directions, it is all
here. You can pick up
pamphlets yourself,
or speak with the
knowledgeable staff.
I was in Belfast for
three days and must
have gone in here
multiple times for
various enquiries.”
Seanetta from Edinburgh
TripAdvisor review
30 VISITBELFAST.COMVisitor
Servicing
Delivering a first-class experience
Visit Belfast’s Visitor Servicing team is the tourism industry’s front line, providing visitors
with all the information and advice they need to get the most out of their stay in Belfast, with
the aim of extending their stay and increasing tourism spend in the city region.
During 2016/17 the three Visitor well as receiving a certificate of extended internationally this
Information Centres (VIC) – Visit excellence from TripAdvisor. year, with Visit Belfast staff and
Belfast Welcome Centre, (VBWC) volunteers travelling to Paris to be
Belfast International Airport (BIA) Gateway City part of Place de l’Europe during
and George Best Belfast City Belfast is often the first stop on a Euro 2016. You can read more
Airport (GBBCA) dealt with over trip to Northern Ireland for visitors, about this on page 32.
750,000 enquiries - approximately so Visit Belfast’s VICs play an
a third of all enquiries handled important gateway role, handling Industry engagement
through the 31 VICs in Northern over 207,000 gateway enquiries in Regular concierge e-zines,
Ireland, resulting in £15.2m 2016/17. New routes and increased familiarisation visits to other
additional revenue being traffic to both airports contributed attractions and four seasonal
generated for the local economy. to this 11% increase on last year. ‘What’s On’ and ‘What’s New’
briefings in the Visit Belfast
This year, more self-service
Service with a smile Welcome Centre aim to help
touchscreens were added at
Through our visitor satisfaction improve destination and product
both the newly-opened Eastside
survey, we found that 74% of VIC knowledge for front-of-house staff.
Visitor Centre and at the Discovery
visitors were first time visitors to
Point in Titanic Belfast, providing In summer 2016, we introduced
Belfast this year, with 71% of those
visitor information, event details, ‘Pop in and See’ visits, delivering
surveyed saying that a visit to a VIC
offers and social media from Visit eight such events throughout the
would make them more likely to visit
Belfast partners. These added to year. These events offer a quick
somewhere they had not thought
touchscreens already available at and easy way for partners to see
of before. Furthermore, 84% said
the airports, at both of Belfast’s and experience new products or
it would encourage them to repeat
main train stations and at the popular city centre attractions
their visit to Belfast and NI.
Applegreen services on both the without committing to a half or full
This survey also measures M2 and M1. day away from their place of work.
customer satisfaction, and all
three VICs scored very highly in Outreach Activity Volunteer programme
2016/17 (82% very satisfied and Beyond the VIC network, the Visit 2016/17 also saw the introduction
18% satisfied). Belfast visitor servicing team of Visit Belfast’s volunteer
provides support and welcome at programme. A team of eight
Award-winning major events, conferences and volunteers were recruited to assist
The Visit Belfast Welcome Centre cruise ships, handling a total of the visitor servicing team across
was awarded the title ‘Best Visitor over 90,600 off-site enquiries a wide range of activities from
Information Centre of the Year’ at during 2016/17. cruise ship servicing to welcoming
the NI Travel and Tourism Awards inaugural flights at both airports.
for the twelfth time in 2016, as Our visitor servicing activity even
VISITBELFAST.COM 31Dare
to Dream
With football fever at a high Visit Belfast, with funding support from the Northern
across Europe and all eyes on Ireland Executive, followed the Green and White Army
Northern Ireland at their first to Paris to promote Belfast and Northern Ireland as
major tournament in 30 years, part of ‘Place de l’Europe’.
30,000 fans and tourists in Paris
had the chance to discover the The event offered each of the 24 nations competing
very best of Belfast and Northern in the Euro 2016 tournament, including other UK
Ireland during Euro 2016. countries England and Wales, as well as the Republic
of Ireland, the chance to engage with thousands of
visitors and fans in the grounds of the City Hall in the
French capital.
The exterior of the Northern Ireland pod was painted
by local artist Marian Noone (aka Frizz), and featured
a ‘mini Causeway’ of tables and stools made to
look like the basalt stones of the Giant’s Causeway,
designed by local TV prop designer Andrew McIntyre.
32 VISITBELFAST.COMVISITBELFAST.COM 33
“Place de l’Europe
provided us with an
unprecedented and
exciting opportunity
to be part of Euro
2016 and engage
directly with
30,000 European
visitors and football The country’s football heritage reality viewers inspired by Google
fans, providing was reflected by a range of ‘corner Cardboard, visitors were given a
an immersive flag’ interpretive panels, each one taste of the best of Belfast and
experience that we dedicated to a particular Northern Northern Ireland, enjoying a virtual
Ireland footballing giant or football tour around the city and beyond.
hope will encourage fact – from the penalty kick being
them to visit Belfast invented by Armagh-man William As well as the virtual reality app,
and Northern McCrum, to the successes of the which featured additional CGI
Belfast-boy himself, George Best. content that brought the stories and
Ireland.”
unique aspects of the region to life,
The Belfast and Northern Ireland the interior of the pod also featured
Gerry Lennon
‘pod’ in Paris allowed visitors videos showcasing the iconic
Visit Belfast Chief Executive
to immerse themselves in landscapes of Northern Ireland and
360° virtual reality technology, the exciting energy of Belfast city.
giving them the opportunity to
experience some of the sights Visit Belfast staff, volunteers
and scenes a visit here would and partners were on-hand to
bring. Through the specially demonstrate the app and sell the
designed ‘Explore Belfast and destination to all our prospective
Northern Ireland’ app – available visitors, engaging with almost
in French, English, Spanish, 30,000 people during the tournament.
Italian and German – and virtual
34 VISITBELFAST.COMThe British Ambassador to France came by for a visit
to the Belfast and Northern Ireland pod.
VISITBELFAST.COM 35The year that was...
2016/17
May Ju n e
Targeting visitors in the Visit Belfast set off for Paris
A p ril Netherlands, and promoting the
KLM route from Amsterdam,
Belfast featured as destination of
to promote Belfast and
Northern Ireland to football
fans, tourists and Paris locals
the month on CityZapper, a unique during the European football
With a focus on the NI Year of Food
travel guide app, as part of a digital championships. Around 30,000
& Drink, our week-long corporate
campaign activated by Visit Belfast people experienced a virtual trip
roadshow brought the best of
in partnership with Tourism Ireland. to the destination thanks to our
Belfast to key clients and conference
innovative Go Explore app.
organisers across Great Britain.
October
The Belfast Ambassador Awards
celebrated the successes of Visit
Belfast’s Ambassador Programme,
shining a light on local experts and
advocates who worked to bring important
conference business to the city.
D e c e m be r
Our ‘Find Your Belfast’
November campaign extended to
include the festive season.
Combined with autumn’s
Belfast Restaurant Week campaign ‘Find Your Belfast’ activity,
activity, which took place in October to we generated £58m in
celebrate the NI Year of Food & Drink, economic benefit for the city.
generated 6.3m impacts across media You can read more about this
and digital channels. campaign on page 16.
36 VISITBELFAST.COMA u g u st
Working with Tourism NI, we Cruise season was well
promoted the best of Belfast at underway, and the busiest
the weekend with our ‘Summer week of the season saw
Sundays’ campaign. more than 15,500 cruise
visitors come to the city in
just one week from 6–12
July August.
S e p t e m be r
Visit Belfast’s AGM took
place in the newly-
reopened National Football
Stadium at Windsor Park,
with Economy Junior
Minister Alasdair Ross
and manager of the
Northern Ireland football
team Michael O’Neill in
attendance.
The last of our ‘Pop in and see’ Together with our partners, Visit
events and industry fam trips, Belfast team members attended
which give front-facing tourism Seatrade and Explore GB - two
staff the chance to experience important industry trade shows
attractions around Belfast and for the cruise and leisure markets
beyond, took place in the Ards respectively.
M a rch
and North Down and Lisburn and
Castlereagh Council areas, as well
as the Belfast Cathedral.
u a ry February
Ja n
After Titanic Belfast was crowned
the World’s Leading Tourist
Attraction at the World Travel
Awards, we activated a five-
month long campaign in Dublin
Airport promoting the accolade
and encouraging visitors to
come north to Belfast, reaching
an average of 500,000 arriving
passengers per month.
VISITBELFAST.COM 37What the
Press say...
Over the year, Visit Belfast worked with local, national
and international media to generate positive coverage
about Belfast to audiences around the world.
“Putting its troubles behind it, the
Northern Irish capital is a different
city these days. Yes, you can still tour
those murals, and find fiddles played
in ancient, stout-stained boozers. But
now a weekend there is also about “Belfast is a
gleaming new galleries, a hot indie buzzing city with
scene and artisan food markets. a colourful history,
Belfast has come a long way…” and some of the
friendliest people
Rob Crossan
Sunday Times
I’ve met.”
Hayley Lewis
A Lovely Planet blog
38 VISITBELFAST.COM“I spent 48 hours in Belfast,
exploring the sights, sounds,
flavours and history of a city
that’s little known, but full of
so much to do and learn that it
needs to be on your travel list.”
Elle Croft “Having emerged
A Bird in the Hand Travel from a dark past
with its stout spirit
intact, Belfast is
now one of Europe’s
coolest alternative
destinations.”
Steve McKenna
Qantas Airlines
“…there’s so much
more to this city with
its fleet of Barbie
pink buses…and it’s
hard to believe that
there are still so many
southerners who have
never been.” “Belfast is famous for its
tumultuous past, but Northern
Muriel Bolger
Irish Daily Mail Ireland’s capital city has so
much more to offer. We loved
our first taste of Belfast, and
you will too.”
Daryl & Mindi Hirsch
2foodtrippers blog
VISITBELFAST.COM 39Summary of Accounts
2016/17 2015/16
£ £
INCOME
NOTE
Belfast City Council
& Other Local Authorities 2,054,399 1,987,462 1
Private sector/commercial
1,131,757 975,506 2
Tourism NI including Conference
Subvention and Business 417,495 389,804 3
Ambassador Programmes funding
Invest NI Business Ambassador
Programme funding 12,500 6,250 4
Total Income
3,616,151 3,359,022
EXPENDITURE
Marketing and Sales
2,367,239 2,033,291
Visitor Servicing
910,472 932,632
Overheads and Admin
338,440 393,099
Total Expenditure
3,616,151 3,359,022
NOTES
1. Additional ad hoc marketing activities requested by Belfast City Council during 2016/17.
2. Includes income from joint carrier campaigns, sponsorship, commercial and industry partnerships
and retail, ticketing and other commercial opportunities in our Visitor Information Centres.
3. Funding for Business Tourism and Visitor Servicing activities.
4. Programme jointly funded by TNI and Invest NI.
40 VISITBELFAST.COMINCOME 2016/17
56.8%
Belfast City Council
& Other Local Authorities
31.3%
Private sector/commercial
11.6%
Tourism NI including Conference
Subvention and Business
Ambassador Programmes funding
0.3%
Invest NI Business Ambassador
Programme funding
EXPENDITURE 2016/17
65.5%
Marketing and Sales
25.2%
Visitor Servicing
9.3%
Overheads and Admin
VISITBELFAST.COM 41Board Members 2016/2017 1 2 3 4 7 8 9 10 13 14 15 16 42 VISITBELFAST.COM
1. Gordon McElroy Chair Belfast Chamber of
Trade & Commerce (June 2016)
2. Harry Connolly Fáilte Feirste Thiar
3. Robert Davis Wine Inns
4. Kathryn Thomson National Museums
Northern Ireland (October 2016)
5. Paul Grant Stena Line
6. Cllr Deirdre Hargey Belfast City Council
7. Dr Howard Hastings Hastings Hotels
Chair (March 2016)
5 6 8. Andrea Hayes Flybe
9. Tim Husbands MBE TBL International
Vice Chair (April 2016)
10. Isabel Jennings Queen’s University Belfast
11. Cllr Emmet McDonough-Brown
Belfast City Council
12. Ivan McMinn Danske Bank
13. Norman Maynes Translink
14. John Moore SS Moore
15. Cllr Arder Carson Belfast City Council
16. Ald Guy Spence Belfast City Council
17. Mark Walker Hilton Hotels
11 12
18. Michael Williamson ASM Chartered
Accountants
Board Observers:
Donal Durkan Belfast City Council
Lisa Toland Belfast City Council
Clare Mullen Belfast City Council
Naomi Waite Tourism Northern Ireland
17 18 Vanessa Markey Tourism Ireland
VISITBELFAST.COM 43Visit Belfast 9 Donegall Square North Belfast BT1 5GB Northern Ireland T +44 (028) 9023 9026 F +44 (028) 9024 9026 E info@visitbelfast.com www.visitbelfast.com
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