As the first participants in the MIA 25th Anniversary Book Tour, Belfast Waterfront Conference and Exhibition Centre kicks off the celebrations in style with a visit to its expanding venue and ever-changing capital city.
Over a billion pounds of investment over the last decade has transformed Belfast into a vibrant and inspirational meeting place, making it the perfect location to celebrate MIA’s special milestone and success in raising the profile of business tourism especially at government level.
No one understands the substantial economic benefits business tourism brings to the local region better than Belfast Waterfront and as such is undergoing a 4,000m2 extension to help attract many more major national and international events to the city.
The £29.5 million development, funded by Belfast City Council, Tourism Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund, under the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland, will help ensure that Belfast Waterfront continues to be one of the best conference centres in the world as well as reaffirm the city as a must-visit business tourism destination.
When opened in Spring 2016, the newly extended venue will boast almost 7,000m2 of event space, enabling Northern Ireland’s only purpose built conference centre to offer more choice and greater flexibility.
With over a year to go until its opening, the extended venue has already attracted almost 50 events, which will bring over 43,000 delegates to the city, generating a welcome 94,000 delegate days.
The MIA 25th Anniversary Book was treated to a hard hat tour of the construction site, where the steel structure of the main conference and exhibition hall is starting to take shape at the rear of the existing building.
The tour continued with a visit to Belfast City Hall, the Ulster Hall, Crumlin Road Goal and Stormont. And before the 25th Anniversary Book boarded the enterprise train to Dublin, where fellow mia member, Meetings Booker awaited its arrival, the team at Belfast Waterfront raised a glass and wished MIA continued success.
The 25th Anniversary Book will be travelling throughout UK and Ireland over the coming months until it reaches its final destination, the mia List, in London on Monday 28 September.