Visit Belfast, the city’s dedicated Destination Marketing and Management Organisation (DMMO), has officially marked the 25th anniversary since its foundation, celebrating a quarter of a century of Belfast’s development as a leading international tourist destination.
Once lumped with Beirut, Baghdad and Bosnia as one of the four ‘B’s international travellers should avoid by global travel bible Lonely Planet, Belfast has enjoyed unprecedented, record tourism growth following a major shift in global perceptions and billions of pounds of investment.
Embarking on a new tourism journey of growth, Visit Belfast was first established by Belfast City Council as the Belfast Visitor & Convention Bureau (BVCB) in 1999.
At the time, Belfast had just 600 hotel bedrooms, 400,000 staying visitors, £80 million spent in the local economy and the first cruise ship arrival, contributing around 17 percent to Northern Ireland’s tourism economy.
By 2023, Belfast had around 5,000 hotel bedrooms, 1.7 million overnight visitors, a record 159 cruise ships and 100 conference business events. Tourism in Belfast contributed £539m to the local economy, almost 45 percent of Northern Ireland’s total tourism impact.
Congratulating Visit Belfast on its achievements over 25 years, Belfast Lord Mayor, Councillor Micky Murray, said:
“Tourism powers growth and investment, enhances our outlook and drives our local economy. As a small, unique and compact city that’s famed for the warmth of our welcome, Belfast packs a punch – and its success can firmly be attributed to the hard work, partnership working and sheer determination of Visit Belfast’s colleagues, members, partners and stakeholders who work so closely together to seize opportunities while also navigating challenges.”
Few countries worldwide have pulled off such an unprecedented tourism transformation as Belfast became one of the world’s leading, most celebrated and award-winning city destinations which now attracts millions of leisure, business and cruise visitors every year.
“In a quarter of a century, Belfast’s international reputation has been transformed and thanks to the foresight of Belfast City Council in establishing a dedicated tourism authority for the city and region, we are proud that we can compete successfully in an international marketplace for visitors and to global industry recognition that underline the city’s reputation as a great place in which to visit, live, study and invest. Congratulations to Visit Belfast – the heart of Team Belfast – for its stellar contribution to the city’s success over 25 years,” the Lord Mayor added.
John McGrillen, Chief Executive, Tourism Northern Ireland, said:
“Congratulations to Visit Belfast and thank you for your support in attracting visitors to the Belfast region and beyond over the past 25 years. Promoting Belfast as an authentic and vibrant city destination has been, and will continue to be, essential to the future growth of tourism across the region.”
In its new strategy for the Belfast City Region, New Horizons, Visit Belfast plans to accelerate this growth further and aims to generate £424m for the city economy as part of its tourism growth blueprint for 2024-2027.
Visit Belfast Chair, Marie-Therese McGivern, said:
“Visit Belfast continues to promote Belfast as an exciting city break, conference, cruise and day trip destination. Our activity is focused on driving visitor demand and delivering a mix of customers balanced throughout the week and throughout the year.
Our ambitious strategy for the three years ahead, New Horizons, will strengthen and elevate the appeal of the city's vibrant neighbourhoods to drive new growth and fresh exploration while we will continue to lead and champion sustainability across the industry, driving impact socially and economically.”
Marking the milestone, Visit Belfast Chief Executive Gerry Lennon said:
“Since our foundation in 1999, we’ve seen the city continue to flourish with new attractions, new experiences, new hotels and an ever-increasing list of reasons to visit.
Visit Belfast continues to focus on promoting the city as a compelling and exciting business, leisure and cruise destination and remains focused on driving sustainable growth and visitor spend and we remain confident in our ability to deliver through our strategic growth plans and with our partners’ support.”
