Titanic Visitor Centre Wins Prestigious Business Award

Titanic Visitor Centre has been awarded the Special Tourism Impact Award by leading business group, Asia Matters, at an event in Dublin.

The honour comes as figures show Titanic Belfast has attracted more than seven million tourists from 145 countries, including key Asian markets, to these shores since opening in 2012 – with around 70% of overseas visitors to the North travelling via Dublin. At the black-tie event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dublin, Chair of the Board at Titanic Belfast, Conal Harvey, described the centre as a "catalyst for the tourism industry".

He said: "The majority of people who come to Titanic Belfast spend at least one night in Belfast, and many spend three or four nights."

Asia Matters Executive Director Martin Murray told Mr Harvey the award was also an acknowledgement of the positive impact the tourism industry in the North was having on the island of Ireland.

"It is impressive that in your year-end 2022, revenues increased almost five-fold to £6.38 million (€7.32m)," Mr Murray added.

The Asia Matters Business Awards awards are held in partnership with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Other winners included Monaghan-based forklift manufacturer Combilift, which was named Exporter of the Year and Technology Exporter of the Year. Global building materials firm Kingspan received a special award to mark the commitment it has shown to the Asian market after the Cavan business opened its first manufacturing plant in Vietnam.

"The significant recent investment in Vietnam to build the new greenfield Kingspan Phu My Factory will serve Vietnam and the wider Asian market to create future-proofed, sustainable buildings," Mr Murray said. The Asia Matters awards, he added, were an opportunity to shine a light on the businesses which have helped Ireland break its target, with two years to spare, of two-way trade worth €100 billion with Asia by 2025.

"In May, it was announced that Ireland was well on course to reaching the target of €100 billion worth of trade with Asia by 2025.

"At our Donegal conference in October it emerged that not only had the figure been reached well ahead of schedule, but had been exceed by €20 billion."

Donegal agri-tech firm C-Bio was another winner at the November 14 event, picking up the Market Entry Award, while Dublin-based dairy processor Tirlán was named Food and Beverage Exporter of the Year.

The University of Limerick was the winner of the Higher Education Partnership of the Year title, while the Game of Thrones studio tour was the Tourism Partner of the Year.