An Overview of the Events Industry in Northern Ireland Bowdin describes events as “benchmarks for our lives”. He goes on to explain the tradition of events and contrasts it with how “Even in the high tech era…we still need social events to mark the local and domestic details of our lives”. Northern Ireland is one of the most up and coming places on the international stage in recent times and its potential is continuously growing. Since the late 90’s a new era has begun and NI has begun to flourish. One of the main reasons behind NI’s new found success and attractiveness is the events industry.

There are always events taking place all over NI, and with each passing year, the number of events continues to grow, as does the prestige of many of the events that are held here. Events are categorised from smallest to largest under Local, Major, Hallmark and Mega-Event. When applying this typology to NI I would consider events like a football final to be local; Belfast Music Week to be major; MTV EMA awards to be Hallmark; and ‘NI 2012’ to be a mega-event. These are a mere few examples as there are various events from each category, taking place all over NI.

NI is home to many great events even at the smallest level. With cultural events like those surrounding St. Patrick’s Day on-going every year in local towns, and local sporting events taking place all the time, NI has proved its capability to create and sustain events. This then allowed for events like the Continental Market to be held at Belfast City Hall every year, which became a very popular attraction around Christmas time and still is every year. Larger events like the Tall Ships coming to Belfast in 2009, gave NI the coverage it needed for it to be considered for many more prestigious events.

The confirmation of the MTV EMA awards coming to Belfast in November this year is a landmark event. This will create the perfect opportunity for the world to see just how big an event NI can sustain, and how bright our future is. It will encourage more people to come to NI and increase the profile of ‘NI 2012’. The Northern Ireland Tourist Board has outlined the “7 big events” for ‘NI 2012’ based mainly around the Titanic, Derry/Londonderry and its upcoming recognition as a City of Culture in 2013, art, music and the want for the world to know that NI is “Confidently moving on”.

These events will create tourism and media coverage in a variety of ways and mainly on a large scale which is great news for NI. There are many more events taking place in NI on every scale, all with the potential to raise NI’s profile. However I would like to focus on one, the Centenary of Titanic’s Maiden Voyage, an important part of the ‘NI 2012’ collection of events. “On 1st October 2009, the Executive agreed to proceed with its commitment to part fund the Titanic Signature Project, to the sum of up to ? 36. 7million.

Titanic Quarter Limited, the private sector partner in the project, as a signal of its commitment, had, at its own risk, and pending final Executive approval, authorised work to begin on site some time ago. This has ensured that the building remains on course for completion by April 2012. The remaining companies funding the project include Titanic Quarter Limited, Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Belfast City Council. ” This event has been so successfully funded as it is of great importance to the events industry and potential tourism in NI.

The titanic is famous all over the world and the fact that it was built in Belfast must be exploited, especially on it’s ! 00th anniversary and as part of such a massive line up of events that comprise ‘NI 2012’. The visitors centre is set to be the “centre piece of Titanic Quarter” which has the potential to be a major tourist attraction. The entire Titanic Signature project taps into our heritage and the heritage of Belfast as a ship building city, that along with the tragic tale of the Titanics Maiden voyage is the perfect spark to ignite the interests of tourist from all over the world.

The events industry in NI has always been strong right from the bottom of the scale with many local cultural events taking place for hundreds of years. It has grown stronger over the years and we are now witnessing possibly its biggest surge to date. With the amount of fantastic events happening in NI now and over the next few years, our events industry’s potential is unlimited. List of References Bowdin, G. McDonnel, I. Allen, J. O’Toole, W. (2001) Events Management. Australia: John Wiley and Sons Australia Ltd.

Kok, C. N. (2002) An analysis of the Olympic venues and their post-Games use. Dissertation, (MSc) European Tourism Management. University of Savoie, France. Northern Ireland Tourist Board (2011) NI 2012: Our Time Our Place. Available from: http://www. nitb. com/ni2012/default. aspx Northern Ireland Tourist Board (2011) Titanic Signature Building. Available from: http://www. nitb. com/DocumentPage. aspx? path=aedbda88-d741-4bec-b324-36204c735653,2d95614c-f2b9-4096-8fa8-8ceabab3894f,b73e1913-f79b-48a4-bb1e-a1ff2edf7c48