Agenda item

            The Chairperson advised the Committee that Mr. G. Lennon, Chief Executive of Visit Belfast, and Mr. H. Hastings OBE, Chair of Visit Belfast, were in attendance and they were welcomed to the meeting.

            Mr. Hastings advised the Committee that tourism was key to the city and to the Belfast Agenda, with Belfast having created more new hotel rooms than Dublin in the past year.  He highlighted to the Members that tourism would become a £1billion industry for Belfast for the first time in 2018. 

            He outlined that Visit Belfast aimed to increase the overnight visits and visitor spend, increase visitors’ lengths of stay, continue to build a positive profile as a place to visit and improve visitor satisfaction and encourage repeat business.

            The Committee was advised that the role of Visit Belfast was to act on the Council’s vision for the City and the more that the Council invested, the more Visit Belfast could return.  He outlined that, for every £1 which the Council invested, Visit Belfast was able to make a return of £34.

            Mr. Hastings reminded the Members that Belfast had won the Lonely Planet’s Number 1 Region award 2018, in conjunction with the Causeway Coast, and that the City had also won the National Geographic Traveller Readers’ Award for Rising Star of 2017 and he presented the National Geographic award to the Chairperson for its display in the City Hall.

            Mr. Lennon pointed out that Northern Ireland’s reputation as a tourist destination was going from strength to strength but that there was still significant potential for growth, particularly when compared with the Republic of Ireland and Scotland.  He advised the Members that September 2019 would see the first Disney Cruise arrive into Belfast. 

            The Members were provided with an overview of Visit Belfast’s draft Business Plan 2018/2019 and the Strategic Plan 2018-2022.

            He reported that, through two of the key priorities of the Belfast Agenda, namely, City Development and Growing the Economy, Visit Belfast was seeking to strike a balance between targeting business and social tourists and highlighted that sports tourism had become an important sector.  He emphasised that the development of the proposed Belfast Story/Hub was crucial in adding a significant second attraction to the City.

            In response to a number of Members’ questions regarding the potential of golf tourism, Mr. Hastings advised the Members that the majority of hotels in Belfast were fully booked for The Open which would be held in July 2019 at the Royal Portrush Golf Club.

            A number of Members congratulated Visit Belfast on being “China Ready”, with a number of staff in the information centre having learned key phrases in Mandarin.

            A further Member stated that the recent employment academies which the Council had run in conjunction with the hospitality sector had been a great success and that numerous people were gaining employment as a result.

            In response to a Member’s concern regarding the local universities having recently cut language courses, Mr. Lennon stated that languages would be extremely important for the upcoming generations and that he felt they should be higher up the agenda in terms of the curriculum.

            A Member stated that he hoped that other Councils would consider contributing more towards Visit Belfast, as the city was the economic driver for the region.

            After further discussion, the Chairperson thanked the representatives for their presentation and they retired from the meeting.

            The Committee:

1.     noted the draft Visit Belfast Business Plan 2018/19, the Strategic Plan 2018/22 and the areas where Council funds would be applied.  (The overall funding agreement with Visit Belfast was built into the revenue estimates);

2.     agreed the funding allocation of £1,902,465 for 2018/19 expenditure, subject to the development of a funding agreement establishing priority areas of activity and agreed targets; and

3.     agreed the additional areas of investment for the next financial year in line with the 2018-2022 strategic plan, and noted that the collective budget allocation would not exceed £95,000; and

4.     noted that the investment would be measured as part of the ongoing activity monitoring work undertaken with Visit Belfast and would be reviewed at the end of the financial year.