City council tees up for Open tourism drive

Belfast is putting itself on a par with The Open as city hall gets on course to host The Great Belfast Tee Off.
By Duncan Elder
Published 8th Jul 2019, 14:24 BST
Lord Mayor John Finucane, Lesley-Ann ODonnell, Tourism NI project manager for The Open, and Liz Kerr, chair of Belfast One, get ready for The Great Belfast Tee Off at City Hall with siblings Eliza and Ronan Finnegan.Lord Mayor John Finucane, Lesley-Ann ODonnell, Tourism NI project manager for The Open, and Liz Kerr, chair of Belfast One, get ready for The Great Belfast Tee Off at City Hall with siblings Eliza and Ronan Finnegan.
Lord Mayor John Finucane, Lesley-Ann ODonnell, Tourism NI project manager for The Open, and Liz Kerr, chair of Belfast One, get ready for The Great Belfast Tee Off at City Hall with siblings Eliza and Ronan Finnegan.

Belfast City Council has teamed up with Belfast One and Tourism NI to transform the lawns of the city’s most iconic building into a putting green for one week only (July 14-21), to celebrate the world’s most prestigious golf competition being hosted in Northern Ireland.

The nine-hole crazy golf course will challenge people of all ages to navigate their way around some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including the Albert Clock, the famous H&W cranes and Titanic Belfast.

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The Great Belfast Tee Off will get the ball rolling on Sunday, July 14 and the free activities will run from 11am to 6pm daily, until the closing day of the major championship on Sunday July 21.

And thanks to the wonders of technology, golf fanatics will also be able to ‘virtually’ play the world-renowned Royal Portrush in the golf simulator.

Over the course of the week, there will be live music and street performers at city hall, and a new performance space in Bank Square will also be hosting live music.

Lord Mayor John Finucane said: “Belfast is the gateway for the hundreds of tourists and visitors who will be flocking to the north coast for the golf, so it’s great for the city to get behind this important sporting occasion which will give the entire region a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a global spotlight.

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“We’ve teamed up with Belfast One and Tourism Northern Ireland to offer a range of golf-related activities for families and people of all ages to come along and enjoy at city hall. It’s shaping up to be a really fun week and best of all – it’s all free.”

Lesley Ann O’Donnell, Tourism NI Project Manager for The Open said: “Tourism NI is delighted at the support received from Belfast City Council for The Open. Back in April we launched our Epic Journey to The Open at Belfast City Hall, before touring every county across Northern Ireland as well as Dublin.

“It has been really positive to work with the Council to ensure that the influx of visitors for the 148th Open experience a breadth of activities across the country, and that our industry are geared up to make them feel welcome.”

For more information visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/teeoff

Related topics:BelfastBelfast City CouncilNorthern IrelandCouncil