Tourism will 'unlock a new future' for Holywood

Holywood in County Down is to open itself to 'outside scrutiny' in a bid to become a key player in Northern Ireland's tourism economy.

The American Consul General, Barbara Stephenson, the chairman of BMI - British Midland - Sir Michael Bishop and the new chief executive of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Alan Clarke, are among those who have accepted invitations to visit the town.

They will be the guests of the Holywood Chamber of Trade & Commerce at its programme of keynote addresses on issues affecting the business community and those interested in the cultural and social life of one of Ireland's oldest settlements.

According to president S Gordon Duffield, tourism offers a new prosperity and an improved quality of life to everyone in the area and its benefits can begin to be unlocked in 2002. He said: "Tourism is a two-way business. If it is to be successful we must identify those features of the area that will attract the type of tourists who will in turn contribute to the lifestyle of those who live and work in Holywood.

"'Good tourism offers the right facility to the right visitor and so satisfies the wish of the guest and aspiration of the host.

"It's with this in mind that we want to embark upon a careful examination of where we position ourselves in the emerging tourism scene.”

The Chamber is building strategic partnerships with those organisations whose decision-making impacts upon Holywood and will help shape its destiny.

These include the Westminster Government, the North Down Borough Council, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, the Belfast City Airport, Translink, the Museums & Galleries of Northern Ireland (MAGNI), the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Bangor & Holywood Town Centre Management.

As a result key opinion-formers such as Lady Hermon, MP for North Down, Councillor Diana Peacocke of NDBC and Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, chairman of the Town Centre body, have shared discussions on Holywood's way forward as have John Doran, the chief executive of the Belfast City Airport, and Marshall McKee, the Managing Director of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. (MB)