Titanic Amount Of 'Room At The Inn'

East Belfast's Titanic Quarter has opened its first hotel with an £8m Premier Inn launched this week and claiming to be 'First by name and first by nature'.

The 122-bedroom hotel is part of the Arc complex at Abercorn Basin and is situated adjacent to Titanic Quarter's entrance and near to the Gateway Office, Odyssey, Public Record Office and the new Belfast Metropolitan College site. The hotel is a valuable addition to the growing development in the fast-growing harbour estate and is the sixth Premier Inn in Northern Ireland and is expected to particularly appeal to the tourist as well as to the business sector.

Earlier this year, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said that a total of six planning applications for the Titanic Quarter were progressing through the system. These include office, residential, hotel and leisure accommodation.

He said that an application had been made recently for a 90-room boutique hotel, including an extension to the former Harland & Wolff headquarters building which would would follow the pre-Christmas Premier Inn budget hotel opening.

In all, planning permission has been granted to Titanic Quarter projects worth over £500m.

Environment Minister Edwin Poots confirmed the massive investment being poured into the area during a visit to the 185 acre site last March and said: "This is a very exciting development. An estimated £7bn is to be invested in the area over the next 25 years.

Speaking this week, Stormont Employment Minister, Ulster Unionist, Danny Kennedy said of the Premier Inn: "It signals not only that Titanic is not only open for business, it's here also for pleasure. Congratulations to the Premier Inn on bringing forward this project."

Premier Inn is the UK's largest hotel chain and is part of the Whitbread group, which employs 33,000 people and includes brands such as Costa Coffee and Brewers Fayre restaurants.

(GK/BMcC)