Agenda and minutes

            Apologies was reported on behalf of the Chairperson (Councillor Lyons) and Councillors Beattie, Murphy, O’Hara and Walsh.

Councillor O’Donnell declared an interest in relation to the presentation on Visit Belfast/International Convention Centre Belfast in that she had been appointed by the Council to the Board of Visit Belfast and remained in the room whilst the matter was under consideration.

Pursuant to the Committee’s decision of 5th December, to receive from representatives of the International Convention Centre Belfast and Visit Belfast a presentation on the business tourism sector in the City.

Pursuant to the Committee’s decision of 5th December, the Members received from Mr. G. Lennon and Ms. C. Toolan, the Chief Executives of Visit Belfast and the International Convention Centre Belfast, respectively, a presentation on business tourism in the City. 

Mr. Lennon informed the Members that business tourism was one of the fastest growing sectors within tourism and that it accounted for £39.1 billion in the United Kingdom and €715 million in the Republic of Ireland in terms of economic impact. Whilst figures were not available currently for Northern Ireland, evidence suggested that it too was a growing market.  He explained that business tourism was important in that it attracted mid-week, year-round and return leisure visitors and pointed to additional benefits beyond tourism, such as attracting global business, investors, media, academics and students.

He reported that Visit Belfast was the single point of contact for organisations wishing to hold events in the City and referred to the fact that it worked in partnership with the International Convention Centre Belfast, through a Memorandum of Understanding, and closely with Invest NI, Tourism NI and other agencies. He reviewed Visit Belfast’s performance for the past five years, in the context of economic impact, bed nights, conferences secured and delegate numbers, and confirmed that it was working to fulfil its target of securing £58 million of economic impact in the current year and would be increasing that target by 30% in 2019/20.

He then outlined four interventions which Visit Belfast would be implementing to drive growth, namely, the establishment of a business development taskforce, the launch of a ‘Belfast Makes Sense’ digital marketing campaign, the unlocking of the corporate market and the launch of Belfast Showcase events. He confirmed that forthcoming strategic priorities would focus upon investment in market research, the development of a Business Tourism Strategy for 2020-30 and the aforementioned ‘Belfast Makes Sense’ digital marketing campaign. In relation to opportunities, he highlighted the strong partnership between Visit Belfast and the International Convention Centre Belfast, the competitive subvention scheme and Belfast’s strong accommodation and social offer and, in terms of challenges, access, Brexit, global competition and low levels of awareness of Belfast as a conference destination.

Ms. Toolan explained that the award winning International Convention Centre Belfast was the City’s only purpose built convention centre and that it was focused upon delivering world class conferences and events.  She outlined a number of changes which had been made to the operation of the centre since its opening in 2016, particularly, the establishment of a new leadership team, investment in technology and the creation of the ICC Belfast brand, and highlighted the value of the current partnership arrangement with Visit Belfast. In terms of attracting conferences, she referred to the City’s strengths in, for example, the medical, cyber security and technology sectors and pointed out that a target to contribute £100 million of economic impact and deliver 50,000 annual conference delegate days by 2020 had been established.  Access, however, remained a challenge, as was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.