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Titanic holds key to future of tourism
Monday, 5 January 2009
No Titanic Fan's observations (Write Back, December 14) were spot on, although he/she did miss the point slightly.
The Titanic was not the best ship of her era, if she was she wouldn't be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The point is that she is the most famous ship in the world.
People have been fascinated by her for almost 100 years. A floating palace which was called ‘unsinkable’, yet sank on her maiden voyage.
They want to find out more, they want to taste the luxury, they want to see the damage caused by the iceberg.
They want to come to Belfast to see where she was born, they want to walk her decks and feel what it would have been like that fateful night, without the danger.
No Titanic Fan rightly criticises Tourist Board-inspired investments such as Navan Fort and others that are struggling on the cusp of viability.
These attractions cater mostly for ‘home tourists’ and since Northern Ireland is quite small, once you have been you don't feel the need to go again.
A replica Titanic will attract tourists from all over the world, generation after generation, like the Giant's Causeway.
They will breath life into existing attractions and tourism will become vibrant and successful.
Shipwright
Lisburn
The titanic, belfasts biggest failure.
Posted by Tom | 12.01.09, 11:56 GMT
A great fascination with Naval Architecture, led me to Belfast several years back. I was struck by the lack of any real appreciation of the work of Thomas Andrews and his compatriots at H&W. Seeing the building in which he drafted some of the greatest naval designs in history in such a state of nothingness was beyond surreal. If the city cannot get its act together to create an appropriate visitor's center, what they can do is highlight Thomas Andrews. The great shipbuilder, mostly self taught and unassuming, deserves more study and more exposure. It would be a less expensive start... and Americans (read tourists) love the story of unexpected genius.
Posted by lanelle | 10.01.09, 22:08 GMT
Mad world indeed. The problem is the politicians have no regard for our money. Even the idea that you can call a building the Titanic centre and that will be enough to get people to travel from all over the world to see it is clearly hairbrained.
Posted by Patrick | 06.01.09, 14:04 GMT
Why would anyone think to visit a building that might, from certain angles, and with not a little interpretation, pretend to look like the bows of a shiop (not THE ship)? This building is just another offie block.conference centre/venue in a city that already boasts Odyssey, Waterfront, Ulster Hall, Kings Hall etc etc. Do we really need it? Will visitors see anything in it that really connects to the Titanic tragedy? Could the contents not better be displayed in the H&W drawing office for authenticity?
Why is government paing for this?
Why do new glorified bus-lanes cost £150m????
Mad world this NI place!
Posted by mark belfast | 06.01.09, 13:33 GMT
The Titanic was far from an embarrassment, the eejit who sailed it into an ice-berg was an embarrassment!!!
Posted by RB | 05.01.09, 16:02 GMT
This project is a complete waste of money and will be another white elephant. The tourist board predict 400,000 visitors a year to the star shaped building. I wonder who makes the stuff up for them.
I still dont understand the celebration of the Titanic. Anywhere else in the world they would do the sensible thing and hope people forget. Was it not an embarressment?
Posted by Patrick | 05.01.09, 14:06 GMT
I support the idea behind a "Titanic revival", but think the submitted plans of a star-shaped builing and some landscaped gardens etc really, really, really suck.
This has not been thought-through.
Posted by mickey | 05.01.09, 11:36 GMT
Interesting comments from 'Shipwright'. However, 'Shipwright' will be aware that attractions live and die by their 'home tourists' and that the domestic market in Northern ireland is too small to sustain a project of this scale. External tourists have a lot of choice and the GB market (which is NI's largest tourist market) will be hugely influenced by the London Olympics in 2012, which is when the Project is meant to open.
Given the lack of investment in this region, the public would probably put their support behind new hospitals or homes rather than this expensive Tourist Board obsession (which the private sector, for some reason, won't support).
Posted by Nate | 05.01.09, 09:54 GMT