Titanic tours, designed to boost tourism in the North, were launched yesterday. Tours telling the story of the Titanic, from its building in Belfast to its sinking in the Atlantic in April 1912 with the loss of 1,490 lives, are being offered by North Down Borough Council.
Launched at World Travel Market in London today, the tours are likely to be snapped up. The packages range from a three-hour tour of Belfast to a nine-day tour linking North Down with Southampton, from where the Titanic sailed.
"The Titanic legend may have ended in the North Atlantic but the fact that its birthplace was in Belfast is not so well known to an international audience," said North Down's tourism chief Mr Alan Chambers. Tourists will be able to see the slipway on which the Titanic was created.
The Northern Ireland Tourist Board also announced that British holiday visitors increased by 25 per cent in 1998, with 81,000 heading for the region.
The board's chairman, Mr Roy Bailie, said tourism could add £500 million sterling of revenue per year to the economy and create 20,000 jobs.
This April the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau opened, with a budget of £3 million to promote the city.
New hotels planned include a Holiday Inn in south Belfast and a city centre Forte Post House which is due to open early next year.