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World video travel guide
News • Great Britain • 2012-06-16
Belfast - June 2012
Belfast sets sail for bumper cruise ship season
A record number of cruise ships is set to dock in Belfast this summer, bringing 74,000 passengers and crew to Belfast and Northern Ireland generating a further boost to the local economy.
This sees the total number of cruise ship passengers visiting Belfast hitting the half-a-million mark since the first cruise ship docked in 1996.
Cruise Belfast, the marketing partnership between Belfast Visitor & Convention Bureau (BVCB) and Belfast Harbour has secured a total of 43 cruise ships for Belfast in 2012, an increase of 38% compared with last year.
The recent arrival of the Caribbean Princess marks another major achievement for the city as this is the first time this giant 3,100-passenger luxury liner has docked in Belfast. The Caribbean Princess, one of the largest passenger-carrying cruise ships in the Princess Cruises fleet, is famed for its giant poolside movie theatre that allows guests to watch movies under the stars.
Other luxury cruise liners expected in Belfast this year include the 2,300-passenger Arcadia in June, the 12-deck Mein Schiff 2 in July and the 30,000-tonne Adonia in August.
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BVCB joins forces with Stena Line & Tourism Ireland to boost Scottish Visitors Numbers
A £100,000 campaign has been launched by Stena Line in partnership with Belfast Visitor & Convention Bureau and Tourism Ireland to boost the number of visitors from Scotland.
In 2011 Scottish visitors accounted for a sizeable proportion of overnight visitors to Belfast and this campaign will seek to boost that figure further. The campaign features TV and press advertising, PR, online and social media activity, focusing on the value message.
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BVCB AGM - Tuesday 26th June
BVCB\'s 13th Annual General Meeting will take place on Tuesday 26th June at Queen\'s University\'s Riddel Hall. BVCB Members and should contact BVCB Reception to RSVP.
In addition to the AGM agenda, Belfast City Council will provide a short briefing on the \"Super Connected Belfast\" faster broadband project.
(Visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/superconnected for more information and online broadband survey)
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Update on Big Events for Summer 2012
The Olympic Torch arrived in Belfast on Sunday 3 June. It made its way around Northern Ireland before travelling through the streets of Belfast on 6 June. It finished at Belfast City Hall with the Olympic Torch Relay celebration event.
The event was broadcast live on BBC One and featured an array of entertainment including General Fiasco, dance act Twist and Pulse (Britain’s Got Talent in 2010), Sontas and the City Of Belfast School of Music Junior Choir.
Latest News on Giant of Giants, Irish Open & the new Giant\'s Causeway Visitor Centre
Land of Giants: (30 June) Land of Giants is one of the most exciting and surprising events ever seen in Ireland – the remarkable show will feature a cast of over 500 people and is to be staged in Belfast at the Titanic Slipways on the 30 June in front of an audience of 18,000.
Cited in The Independent\'s Top 20 Events in the London 2012 Festival, the newspaper advises readers to \"Expect myth, history, fireworks, acrobatics, music, and more.\"
Click Here to view the Land of Giants Teaser Video
Irish Open: (28 June- 1 July) Bushmills Irish Whiskey has been announced as a sponsor for the Irish Open tournament at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Around 90,000 people are expected to visit the north coast for the Open, which will see Northern Ireland\'s three major winners Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy compete against three-time major winner Padraig Harrington and reigning USPGA champ Keegan Bradley. The tournament winner will be granted \'Freedom of the Old Bushmills Distillery\'.
Check www.gotobelfast.com for a number of Irish Open package options
Click here to view NITB\'s Irish Open Ad
Giant\'s Causeway Visitor Centre: (Opening July 2012) The new 2012 opening hours for the visitor centre are:
Jul, Aug: 9 am – 9pm
Sep: 9 am – 7pm
Oct: 9 am – 6pm
Nov, Dec: 9 am – 5pm
The National Trust has been working in partnership with the School of Geography at Queen’s University to develop new approaches to managing and monitoring the changing environment. It is the first time such an integrated approach has been applied to any World Heritage Site.
Laser scanners are used to create 3D models of the site which help monitor changes in slopes over time and provide a foundation over which biodiversity, slope failure and visitor data is mapped to produce an online tool; providing the National Trust with the information necessary to manage the site for safe access. Click here to view \"Delivering a Giant Experience\" video on YouTube.com
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Awards, Accolades & Achievements
Mourne Seafood Serves up \"Good Food\" Award
Mourne Seafood Bar has won The Good Food Guide Readers\' Restaurant of The Year for Northern Ireland. The annual awards are based on votes from roughly 44,500 readers of the prestigious magazine for their favourite regional restaurants.
Award for Belfast Streets Ahead Scheme
The £28 million Belfast Streets Ahead scheme has won the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Northern Ireland Project of the Year for 2012. The scheme also won the RICS Northern Ireland Regeneration category at the event in the Great Hall, Queen\'s University, Belfast.
Lyric Theatre named “Building of the Year” at RSUA Design Awards 2012
The Lyric Theatre has impressed a panel of architects to win a hat-trick of awards at the Royal Society of Ulster Architects’ (RSUA) Design Awards 2012.
The landmark theatre won the Liam McCormick prize for the “Building of the Year” at the 2012 Design Awards, completing a string of accolades for the £18.1m theatre including the \"Over £2.5m\" award and DOE Planning Award.
Public Records Office NI won the \"Over £2.5m\" award, SIB Sustainable Design Award and the Arts Council Integrated Artwork/s Award whilst Queen\'s Elmwood Hall won the award for conservation.
NI Tourism Awards
Congratulations to the BVCB Members who picked up awards at the recent NI Tourism Awards. Winners included:-
Outstanding Contribution to Tourism
Lyric Theatre
Best Event/Festival
Belfast Music Week 2011, Belfast City Council Winner
Out to Lunch Arts Festival Highly Commended
The International Seed Federation (ISF) World Seed Congress 2011, Happening Conferences and Events Commended
Best Visitor Experience
Todds Leap - Winner
Ulster Folk and Transport Museum / National Museums NI - Highly Commended
Lyric Theatre - Commended
The Jungle - Commended
Hotel Accommodation
The Merchant Hotel Winner
Marketing and Sales Excellence
Belfast Zoological Gardens Winner
Stena Line Highly Commended
Todds Leap Commended
Serviced Accommodation
Rayanne House Highly Commended
Non-Serviced Accommodation
Victoria Apartments Highly Commended
Visitor Inspired
The Giant’s Causeway Visitor Facility, National Trust Winner
Belfast Zoological Gardens Highly Commended
Lyric Theatre Commended
Partner Initiative
Patterns of the City - Belfast City Dressing Plan Campaign, Belfast City Council Commended
New Tourism Project
Belfast City Bike Tours Highly Commended
BVCB Members scoop Janus Awards
Congratulations to the BVCB Members who scooped awards at the recent Janus Awards. Winners included:-
Hotelier of the Year - Large Business Ben Clayton Premier Inn
Housekeeper of the Year - Lauren Hodson Hastings Culloden Estate & Spa
Food & Beverage Manager of the Year - Paul Quinn La Mon Hotel & Country Club
Restaurant Chef of the Year - John Paul Leake The Great Room Restaurant
Hotel Chef of the Year - Dean Butler Malone Lodge Hotel & Apartments
Front Office Manager of the Year - Damian Gilvary Hilton Belfast
Visitor Number Successes for Belfast\'s Newest Attractions
Titanic Belfast has welcomed 200,000 visitors since opening in March and new arts venue The MAC has welcomed 60,000 people through its doors since opening in April.
Belfast - the UK\'s least expensive city (Mercer\'s Cost of Living Survey 2012)
According to Mercer\'s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2012 - Belfast is the UK’s least expensive city (ranking 165th out of 214 cities across five continents covered). The survey measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
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Access
£4m upgrade for Stena Line’s Liverpool-Belfast vessels
Stena Line has completed a £4m upgrade of its vessels plying the busy Liverpool-Belfast route.
The refit, carried out at the Belfast shipyard of Harland & Wolff, will offer passengers a range of improved facilities on Stena’s sister ships Stena Mersey and Stena Lagan.
Stena Line\'s investment programme has introduced new onboard facilities such as Stena Plus, a Pod Area with five iMacs, a trucker’s lounge, free wi-fi and the Metro Bar & Grill and Metro Restaurant, both offering a new menu.
The ferry operator said its refurbishment has also improved the customer experience, including the onboard ambience, an improved shop with new products, improved guest services, and cinema with free movies.
Translink - Love Metro Saturdays
To celebrate Translink\'s Metro Smart Saturdays there will be continued activity taking place in Belfast City Centre on selected Saturdays in June. Metro passengers will be able to benefit from free family entertainment including:
Saturday 16th June, Face painting at Belfast City Hall
Belfast city centre will be awash with colourful faces thanks to complimentary face painting and glitter tattoos
Saturday 30th June, Make-up Demonstrations at Belfast City Hall
Calling all fashionistas! Metro passengers will be able to avail of complimentary professional make-up demonstrations.
£2 Metro Day Ticket (after 9.30 am – 3 pm on Saturdays)
Child Day Ticket promotional fare £1.
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Development
Conference & Meetings Space at Belfast Met
Belfast Met\'s new £44m state-of-the-art campus at Titanic Quarter offers a number of meetings, conference and events space, including: a flat-floored flexible space that can cater for over 300 delegates; a 135-seater modern and spacious tiered lecture theatre; as well as ample seminar and training rooms, of varying sizes. In addition, there are a number of demonstration kitchens, one of which contains a 88-seater viewing gallery.
Belfast Met’s Titanic Quarter campus is also home to Urban Escape hair and beauty salons, and the Linen Lounge restaurant - open to all members of the public. Urban Escape is equipped to the highest industry standards, offering high street pampering experiences at an affordable price. The Linen Lounge is the perfect place for a relaxing morning coffee, a bistro lunch or fine dining experience.
The 3 storey 500 sq metre e3 building at Belfast Met’s Springvale Campus, located on the Springfield Road, has a large open plan area at the heart of the facility, and includes modern, spacious and comfortable meeting rooms of various capacities and configurations to suit all business requirements - conferences, seminars and training courses, presentations and exhibitions, grand banquets. e3 also offers a specialist media environment – an animation and digital editing suite, TV and radio production studios - that suits the needs of media professionals, or with the assistance of specially trained technicians, a perfect setting for corporate away-days.
Belfast City Council announces Super-connected Belfast Project
Belfast is one of 10 cities in the UK which have secured super-connected status from the government.
Belfast City Council has already received £6m in funding and is hoping to more than double that in a forthcoming bid. Plans are to utilise that money to put a wireless network in place covering an area stretching out from City Hall in a five kilometre radius. It also plans to ensure that ultrafast broadband internet connections are widely available - making the city an attractive investment location for media and technology firms. The plan is to have the new networks in place by 2015.
For more information and to complete an online broadband survey, visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/superconnected
Down Royal set to unveil latest £40,000 investment
Down Royal Racecourse is set to unveil its latest £40,000 investment this summer at the Magners Derby Race Day, Saturday 23rd June, with the new balcony addition to the Rainbow Communications Suite.
The Rainbow Communications Balcony is part of Down Royal\'s continued plans to improve the hospitality offering and to bridge the gap between premium hospitality and general admission, making Down Royal the best possible venue for all budgets. The spectacular balcony, with views over the parade ring and finishing line provides further added value for the £55 hospitality package.
With attendance at Down Royal up almost by 10% in 2012, the new balcony, which can comfortably accommodate 60 racegoers, is set to be a popular addition to one of Ireland\'s best loved race courses.
Computer cloud has a silver lining for the Titanic Quarter
The Titanic Quarter in Belfast has been chosen as a test site for a new cloud computing system. Delivered by Data City Exchange (DCE), the technology is a forerunner to the development of an £80m data centre, also based in the Titanic Quarter. Belfast has been marked as one of only two sites in the UK.
Premier Inn hotel work begins in Derry/Londonderry as UK City of Culture 2013 programme is unveiled
Hospitality recruitment in Derry/ Londonderry is to be boosted through the development of a Premier Inn in the city, with roughly 65 jobs to be generated by the hotel when it opens. It will be developed as part of a £56 million mixed-use complex known as the Crescent Link Master Plan.
The programme of events for the UK City of Culture 2013 has been unveiled and promises some unforgettable experiences. The Turner Prize - the UK\'s most prestigious arts award - is coming to the maiden city next year, the renowned Field Day Theatre Company is reforming as well as the All-Ireland Fleadh. View programme preview online
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World Police & Fire Games Announces Preferred Venues for August 2013
2013 World Police and Fire Games (WPFG) Ltd has announced a total of 41 preferred venues in Belfast and across Northern Ireland which will host the comprehensive range of approximately 66 sports featured in next year’s international ten day event. The announcement follows a ten day visit by the World Police and Fire Games Federation in April when every location was visited and matched against exacting suitability criteria.
Preferred sports venues are subject to further planning discussions with the governing bodies of sport, commercial negotiations with a view to securing value for money and contractual arrangements. 2013 WPFG Ltd will work with each venue to finalise an event schedule for each of the allocated sports and begin the development of a detailed operational plan. View the preferred venue list here
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Belfast Welcome Centre Ticketing
Land of Giants
Land of Giants is one of the most exciting and surprising events ever seen in Ireland – the remarkable show will feature a cast of over 500 people and is to be staged in Belfast at the Titanic Slipways on the 30 June in front of an audience of 18,000. Book Online
Ronan Keating & Sharon Corr in Concert
Glenarm Castle will play host to Ronan Keating, live in concert on the evening of Saturday 14th July, along with his very special guest Sharon Corr, as part of the P&O Ferries Dalriada Festival Week.
Ronan and Sharon are set to put on a spectacular show in this truly unique setting. Tickets, priced £39.95 (inc. booking fee) from Belfast Welcome Centre
Steam & Jazz Train
Trains will operate on Fridays 22 June and 6 July
Departing Belfast Central at 7.20pm - Returning 11.45pm
Tickets £24 Book Online
Sunflower Fest 2012 -17-19 Aug 2012 Book online
Singles Camping Area £52.00 including all booking fees
Family Camping £52 per adult family member (13 years and over) including all booking fees
Belfast Music Tour
The \"One and Only\" Belfast Music Tour running fortnightly on Saturdays at 2pm, the tour departs from the Ulster Hall\'s lobby. Book online
Historical Pub Walking Tours
Running to October, tours depart Thursdays at 7pm and Sat at 4pm from the Dining Rooms of the Crown Liquor Saloon Book online
Late Night Art Bus - Guided tour of a selection of the Belfast Art Galleries Book online
Departs Naughton Gallery 6:30pm
Tour ends @ the Black Box Hill Street 9pm approx
Late Night Art Walking Tour Book online
Departs 1st Thu of every month at 6:30pm from Belfast Exposed Gallery Donegall St
Tour ends at the Black Box in Hill Street.
Gig in the Garden @ Minnowburn - 4 August
A fantastic musical line up will perform in the beautiful surroundings of Minnowburn\'s Rose Garden alongside fun children\'s activities and local food stalls.
Nicole & Martin Tour
Book online
Belfast Sea Safari Titanic Tour
Belfast Sea Safari Titanic & Cruise Ship Combo Tour
Range of Ulster Orchestra tickets available
Titanic Belfast Tickets (Walk-in only)
Moving on Music tickets
Old Flat Top Events - Tickets £12.50
Paddy Nash & The Happy Enchilados (30 June) Black Box
Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo (4 October) Black box
Mary Coughlan (23 November) Black Box
Range of city bus tours
Belfast City Bike Tours
Starting in the Cathedral Quarter. £15 per person
Belfast Bike Tours
Starting from Queen\'s University. £15 per person
Ghost Walk Belfast
Daily at 7.30pm, Departure front gates of the City Hall. Duration: 1hr 15mins (min 3 people required per tour.
Historic Belfast Walking Tour
Guided walking tour of Belfast City & experience its sights, sounds & atmosphere.
March-October Tours. Depart 2.00pm from Belfast Welcome Centre
Coiste Political Walking Tour
Guided walking tour of murals & interface areas of West Belfast.
Titanic Dock & Pump-House Tours
Guided tours available every hour on the hour
Duration approximately 1 hour.
Titanic Walking Tour
Daily Departures at 11am, 1pm, 3pm
All Tours will depart outside the main entrance of the Titanic Belfast Visitor Attraction.
Belfast Cookery School Classes - in association with Mourne Seafood
Each class is 3 hours long and classes include: Seafood, Thai cookery, Bread, Italian & Dinner Party
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Events
Malachi Cush Busking at The OUTLET - 23 June
Come along and enjoy an acoustic performance from Malachi Cush at The OUTLET’s restaurant and cafes (3.15pm - 4.30pm)
The OUTLET is also hosting a free children’s circus workshop every weekend throughout the summer.
Each circus workshop offers an opportunity to come and learn a variety of circus skills including juggling, hat manipulation, flower stick, diablo, globe walking, tight wire walking and trampette.
The workshops are taught in a fun and enthusiastic way to a high standard by tutors from Ireland’s premiere circus school Belfast Community Circus School.
Dinosaurs roar in Belfast as Ulster Museum & Odyssey Arena host \"jurassic\" events
Visitors to Ulster Museum\'s \"Age of The Dinosaur\" exhibition have the opportunity to come face to face with the colossal Camarasaurus, tip-toe past the vicious Velociraptor and take cover from the terrifying Tarbosaurus With seven life-like animatronic dinosaurs. Running until 16 September, the ehibition also allows visitors to examine fossils including giant claws and footprints
The award-winning arena spectacular Walking with Dinosaurs comes to Belfast\'s Odyssey Arena for the first time, this astounding production will visit Belfast 14-16 September.
Snapshot of Forthcoming June Events
Belfast Book Festival -Various Venues Until 18 June
Amalgam... @ The MAC 16-17 June
42nd Street - Grand Opera House 19-23 June
Fly Me To The Moon Belfast Waterfront 12-30 June
Fathers Day Special WWT Castle Espie 16 June
Afternoon Tea @ Castle Ward 17 & 24 June
Music in the Zoo @ Belfast Zoo - 17 June
Westlife Final Show @ Odyssey Arena 20 June
Family Garden Workshop @ Mount Stewart 16 June
Hillmount Fathers Day Vintage Show @ Hillmount Nursery 17 June
Bike Week -Lisburn Until 24 June
Bushmills Live! Bushmills Distillery 20-21 June
Summer Festival of Racing @ Down Royal - 22-23 June
Women & Children First @ The Argory 24 June
David Park @ Ulster Hall 27 June
The Importance of Being Ernest @ Lyric Theatre - Running until 7 July
Exhibitions
Fusion 2012 @ Spce CRAFT Until 30 June
The Life of the Lough Linen Hall Library Until 29 June
Brian Ballard & Lisa Ballard @ Belfast Print Workshop Until 29 June
Paintings & Sculptures Exhibition @ Island Arts Centre Until 23 June
