Information for Students

Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau (“BVCB”) is the tourism marketing and visitor servicing organisation for the Belfast City region, with responsibility for:

• attracting tourism visitors, nights and revenue to the Belfast region;
• fulfilling an essential tourism gateway role for the rest of Northern Ireland; and
• providing a visitor servicing function, through the operation of three tourist information centres – the Belfast Welcome Centre, Belfast International Airport TIC and George Best Belfast City Airport TIC.

BVCB is a results-focused and commercial organisation. Its marketing plan focuses on priority markets and those activities which are likely to have the greatest impact and economic return for the region, Northern Ireland as a whole and its funders. This philosophy has always been central to BVCB’s strategies, and is reflected in BVCB’s, and the region’s, impressive performance figures:

• Tourism to Belfast has more than quadrupled over the last 7 years, to reach 6.9 million visitors in 2007 and £313million spend.
• In 2007, Belfast secured 31 cruise ships into Belfast, equating to 38,456 visitors.
• In 2007, Belfast secured 45 conferences equating to c14,590 delegates and expected to generate £7.2million for the local economy, and held 52 conferences with 14,915 delegates and generating £35.2million for the economy.
• Belfast has been driving and sustaining tourism performance in Northern Ireland as a whole, with Belfast’s tourism growth rates and hotel occupancy levels well above the Northern Ireland average. Indeed, in some instances, Belfast has actually maintained Northern Ireland’s tourism numbers, as visitor numbers have dropped across the other regions. In 2007 average annual hotel occupancy in Belfast was 77%, against a Northern Ireland average of 67%.
• BVCB has a well proven track record for achieving and exceeding its targets, and generating excellent returns on investment for its funders. In 2007/08, every £1 spent by BVCB in marketing the region £155 was generated for the local economy.
• BVCB has a very strong private sector support and membership, with around 487 private sector members.
• BVCB has won a number of marketing awards, for the excellence and innovative nature of its marketing activities, its contribution to tourism, and the Belfast Welcome Centre.
• Belfast has been voted as the 2nd most favourite UK city/short break destination in the Guardian/Observer Travel Awards, the UK City of the Future in the FDI magazine, was noted in Lonely Planet as one of the top ten cities on the rise, and Best Conference Destination in the Business Britain Magazine.
• In 2007, the Belfast Welcome Centre handled 408,478 enquiries, the TIC at the Belfast International Airport handled 85,922 enquiries and the George Best Belfast City Airport (which only opened in August 2007) handled 27,518 enquiries. All of these TICs fulfil an important gateway role, with approximately 45%-50% of enquiries relating to regions outside Belfast.

BVCB Organisational Structure

BVCB is a not-for-profit private/public sector partnership between local government, central government and the private sector, governed by a Board with representatives from all of these sectors.

BVCB is also the marketing and visitor servicing delivery agent for the Greater Belfast Strategy Forum, which is a forum through which the local authorities in Belfast Metropolitan area come together to discuss tourism development for the region.

BVCB is structured across four divisions, reporting to the Chief Executive but working very much in coordination and jointly towards an overall strategy and tactical plan:

• Leisure, Business and Conference Marketing;
• Communications and Research;
• Visitor Servicing;
• Finance, Administration and IT.

BVCB Funding

In 2008/09, BVCB’s total funding is expected to total £3.5million, drawn from:

Local Government

• Belfast City Council (49.5% of total funding)
• Lisburn City Council (1% of total funding)
• Carrickfergus Borough Council (0.7% of total funding)
• Newtownabbey Borough Council (0.6% of total funding)
• North Down Borough Council (1% of total funding)

Central Government

• NITB (22.9% of total funding, through a Service Level Agreement in respect of BVCB’s gateway role and funding from IFI)

Private Sector

• Private sector members fees, sponsorship, participation in marketing activities and joint marketing campaigns (24.3% of funding)

Given the extent of its activities, BVCB operates on a tight budget, which has fallen considerably over recent years: in 2006/07 BVCB’s budget dropped from £3.09million in 2005/06, to £2.78million in 2006/07, and £2.41million in 2007/08. In 2008/09, the budget has recovered to £3.5million, with increased funding from NITB and Belfast City Council. However, BVCB’s budget is still low in comparison with other competing cities such as Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, who have budgets ranging from £4million to £7million.

The main funder is Belfast City Council, who contributed £956k of funding in 2007/08 and a projected £1.7million in 2008/09, and has been steadily increasing its year on year contribution. The funding from NITB has reduced year on year since 2003/04 to reach £416k in 2007/08, but started to recover in 2008/09 when NITB established a Service Level Agreement with BVCB to undertake a range of gateway activities and the NITB funding increased to a projected £808k.

BVCB’s private sector support and funding has always been strong, reaching a projected £855k in 2008/09. However, BVCB is mindful that, in the current economic climate, private sector contributions could come under more and more pressure over immediate years.