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GROUND-BREAKING MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

A ground-breaking musical performance, which brought together 18 members of loyalist and republican marching bands along with ‘urban musicians’ and Ethnomusicology students, was showcased to hundreds of people at Whitla Hall, Queen’s University last night, 24th February, 2016.

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Highlights from Deloitte’s three year evaluation report, which is based on the period 1 April 2012 – March 2015, includes: Titanic Belfast generated £105 million in additional tourism spend for the Northern Ireland economy over its first three years, sustaining around 893 jobs each year in the wider economy.There were 1.9 million admissions to the galleries; 150,000 conference delegates and 100,000 visitors to special exhibitions. Visitor numbers peaked in the first year of opening, with over 800,000 customers, and have continued to remain highly resilient with 700,000 customers to the galleries, exhibitions and conferences in year three.Over 71% of visitors were from outside of Northern Ireland visited Titanic Belfast as well as 576,000 from Northern Ireland.Over the last three years half a million visitors’ main reason to visit Northern Ireland was to see Titanic Belfast.Titanic Belfast is a unique public private sector partnership funded by the NI Executive, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour Commission and Titanic Quarter Limited. This partnership is critical to the project’s success alongside the high level cross party political support.Appointment of a private sector operator in 2011 has ensured the ongoing and future financial sustainability of the project. The report recommends that the relationship between the owner Titanic Foundation and the operator Titanic Belfast provides interesting learnings for other projects.Its contribution to Belfast and Northern Ireland as a Tourism Destination is evident in the global visitor base it has attracted; the excellent feedback from visitors and tour operators; and in the number of prestigious international and national awards it has received. In 2015 Titanic Belfast won the ‘Best Visitor Attraction in Europe’ (European Group Travel Awards) beating the Eiffel Tower and London Eye.Titanic Belfast has contributed to the unlocking of over £50 million public and private investment in heritage assets including HMS Caroline, SS Nomadic and the Harland & Wolff Head Quarters and Drawing Office.