Belfast City Airport offers £30k for best small visitor attraction

The competition is open to visitor attractions and experiences across the province with an annual footfall of less than 100,000.

The prize will include £20,000 of branding on site at Belfast City Airport which welcomes approximately 2.6m passengers each year, and £10,000 of online support through the airport’s digital channels.

The chosen attractions will then feature on the airport’s Facebook page, with the most popular from each council progressing to the final which will see a judging panel visit, experience and score each of the attractions.

“In 2017 we ran a hugely successful competition with Food NI to launch the search for Northern Ireland’s best food or drink product.” said commercial director Katy Best.

“Co Armagh’s Long Meadow Cider won the title and benefited hugely from significant presence in the airport and on our digital channels.

“The smaller visitor attractions and experiences are hugely important to the overall tourism industry here in Northern Ireland and that is why they were chosen as the focus of this year’s campaign.

“We are really pleased to be working with Tourism NI and all eleven local Councils to raise the profile of some of Northern Ireland’s smaller and lesser known attractions.”

The £20,000 of free advertising on offer at the airport will be on a number of formats within the terminal, while the £10,000 of digital support will include activities such as email solus campaigns and social media take overs.

“We are thrilled to have partnered with Belfast City Airport for what I’m sure will be a very successful initiative,” said Tourism NI CEO John McGrillen, said:

“Our focus is on encouraging visitors to extend their stay in the region, and this competition should raise awareness of the huge choice of attractions and experiences visitors have when they arrive.”