Groundbreaking US tourism, business and trade mission – a huge success!!

Having returned and now rested from a whirlwind week of engagements, events, gatherings and scatterings at Milwaukee Irish Fest followed by a series of meetings in New York City the local delegation led by MP Paul Maskey and chairperson of Fáilte Feirste Thiar are in confident form as to the lasting impact the first of its kind tourism and business trade mission to the USA will have on our local development as an emerging destination.

The trade mission, was led by West Belfast MP Paul Maskey, supported by a cross section of organisations representative of the local tourism and business sector, including: Harry Connolly of Fáilte Feirste Thiar, Kevin Gamble of Féile an Phobail, local musician and representative of Gaeltacht Quarter Grainne Holland along with Sam Baker constituency manager of Sinn Féin and Frainc Mac Cionnaith events manager at An Chultúrlann.

The mission had two elements, the first being attendance and participation at Milwaukee Irish fest and the second element being a day of business engagements in NYC facilitated by Tourism Ireland and NI bureau.

Whilst in Milwaukee the group attended a host of events and engagements including:

·         Paul Maskey MP attending a lunch/event with Irish Fest senior management and The Ulster Scots Agency.

·         Paul Maskey MP spoke at the launch of Irish Fest.

·         Attendance at an opening night VIP reception which included policy makers, civic leaders, Irish ambassadors and tour operators.

·         Paul Maskey MP spoke at a civic reception at Milwaukee City Hall which was also attended by the delegation. Local media was also present. We presented the Mayor of Milwaukee with a gift from West Belfast.

·         We attended a lunch with representatives from Irish Festivals from across the length and breadth of the USA.

·         We attended a Tourism Ireland organised event on ‘The Gathering’, also attended by leading Irish American tourism figures.

·         Delivered two talks at ‘The Hedge School’ on Féile 25. Gaeltacht Quarter and our unique offering.

·         Attended a closing reception which allowed us to consolidate contacts.

In addition to these engagements which gave the delegation access to key individuals and organisations they also ran a stall in a section of the festival grounds which provided them with an enormous opportunity to showcase our destination to ‘would be’ visitors thinking about or already planning to travel to Ireland.

Needless to say they seized the opportunity that the stall presented which essentially allowed them to:

·         Secure group visits to West Belfast and Gaeltacht Quarter.

·         Secure commitment from at least 750 people that they will visit West Belfast and Gaeltacht Quarter.

·         Align our brand to other major Irish destination brands such as Shannon region, Titanic and ‘The Gathering’.

·         Showcase and promote our tourism offering.

·         Develop interest in the stall through the running of a jersey and CD competition, this proved to be hugely popular.  

·         Engage with festival volunteers and staff.

·         Showcase local artists in particular Grainne Holland.

·         Showcase our immense hospitality offering including local businesses.

·         Articulate the uniqueness of our product and showcase the vital role of the Irish language.

·         Distribute thousands of leaflets, programmes and brochures on our major attractions.

·         Distribute business cards for follow up to those expressing an interest in coming to West Belfast.

·         Develop relationships with TIL staff and other destination representatives.

·         Consolidate contacts with Milwaukee hurling club.

The second element of the trip was based at NYC and facilitated by both TIL and NIB.

It involved essentially a sales pitch to TIL staff responsible for penetrating the American market place and for all marketing of Ireland in the US. This was an insightful meeting with TIL staff embracing our offering and outlining a whole range of opportunities for us to immediately avail off. ‘The Gathering’ initiative featured very strongly here also.

NIB hosted a dinner in NYC which included leading figures from the art and cultural community within NYC including theatre owners, business people, Invest NI, Irish language lobby groups and leading figures within Irish America. This event allowed us to talk about our plans and recent successes. It also allowed us to pursue new relationships, consolidate contacts and showcase our investment prospectus.

Paul Maskey MP said:

“Since becoming MP we have adopted the attitude that nothing will come our way by chance, any investment or benefit to the constituency will have to be hard fought and we must get out there and grab it! This groundbreaking mission was part of that programme of work. Whilst in the US we secured the support of many influential policy makers from the world of politics, government and business. The real work begins now to turn the commitments gained into a reality and we have a programme in place to ensure we do that. The hospitality shown by all who we met was first class in particular from Milwaukee Irish fest – this hospitality is evident of the strength of our brand and indeed the goodwill that exists in Irish America. The challenge for us all is translating goodwill to tangible benefit”

Kevin Gamble Féile an Phobail said:

“From a festival perspective, the sheer scale of the Irish Fest in Milwaukee was overwhelming. Seeing 3,000+ volunteers working from noon till dawn across a 48 acre site to bring  a little taste of Ireland to the USA was fantastic. We would hope to build on this experience by further developing the site at the Falls park to incorporate a wide range of Féile activities, all at one site in the heart of West Belfast. This will help attract greater numbers of tourist, funding, local spend, jobs and also raising the profile of West Belfast nationally and internationally. We also had the opportunity to promote West Belfast, The Gaeltacht Quarter and Féile25, and the interest shown by people to come here next year and experience our own unique Féile and all that West Belfast has to offer was huge. “

Frainc Mac Cionnaith, Gaeltacht Quarter said:

“The Irish language and Culture was central to our sales pitch and was warmly received. It was what gave us the stand out in the market place we needed. This mission was good for An Cheathrú Gaeltachta and a further milestone in releasing its full tourism potential”

Grainne Holland local artist said:

“As a local artist it was an amazing opportunity to showcase local music and all that is great and good about our community and An Cheathrú Gaeltachta.”

Harry Connolly Fáilte Feirste Thiar said:

“As this was the first time we embarked upon a trip as ambitious and of this scale, we recognised from the outset that there would be key learning outcomes for us to develop and build upon. We developed an appreciation of the sheer scale of the US market and the yet untapped tourism and business potential that resides there for our benefit. We need to continue the momentum gained from this trip as we head towards a hugely significant year for us in 2013 with the anniversary celebrations of Féile 25 and Blain Na Gaelige - celebrating the Irish language. Trips like this set us up for what’s down the line. We have proven yet again that our brand is strong, unique and resonates within the international market place. Now is the time to seize the moment and see the real impact on the ground by way of increased investment in our tourism assets and by a further increase in tourism footfall.”

A big thank you to all our funders and sponsors. A cocktail of funding made the trip possible with a number of organisations providing additional in kind support. This included:

·         Foras Na Gaelige - Sponsorship

·         Ortus Business Development Agency - Sponsorship

·         Belfast City Council – Funding

·         NI Bureau (NIB) – Hosted a dinner with leading cultural figures in NYC.

·         Tourism Ireland (TIL) – Advice, support and set up meetings with their staff and some Irish American publications.

·         O’Neill’s sportswear – Design of promotional merchandise (in kind).

·         American Holidays – Sponsorship

Two weeks – A short time in tourism!!

Two weeks ago today a delegation of West Belfast tourism stakeholders led by our MP, tourism champion Paul Maskey, fond ourselves negotiating the long avenues and wide streets of downtown Manhattan as we made our way to Ireland House on Park Avenue.

 Ireland House is home to Irish government organisations based in USA and home to Tourism Irelands (TIL) US headquarters.

delegation at Ireland House, Manhatten NYC

The Tourism Ireland (TIL) team had agreed to meet us and receive presentations of our plans for 2013 as part of our mission to the States to penetrate that market place with the hope of increasing visitors to our events next year! (Post coming soon on Milwaukee Irish fest!).

With TIL staff there is definitely a warm, informal and relaxed yet ruthless energy and enthusiasm associated with their approach to the task at hand. TIL staff display these characteristics from senior management to their marketers to their admin staff, as they showed us around their offices and we began to set up for our presentations, the welcome was palpable.

We needed to prove to them that we meant business and we were in fact a part of Ireland that had a unique offering and visitors to Ireland needed and wanted to experience our offering!

We achieved what we set out to do with the TIL staff and they outlined a number of quick wins that we can work on immediately but as the meeting finished and drew to a close our conversation turned to the Notre Dame and Navy game and the work TIL were doing around this to capitalise on a captive US audience. They informed us that more Americans will be in town (An American phrase I picked up!) for this game (played in Dublin’s Aviva on Saturday) than there was in London for the Olympics!

So in terms of proving we mean business and that our brand is worthy – today, 2 weeks later, four guys aged from mid 20’s to early 60’s and dressed with fighting Irish T-shirts and jerseys were negotiating the roads and avenues around West Belfast. I chatted with them briefly and just as I thought - they were in town for the game, they then got tickets for the other big game in Dublin and with two days to go before they headed back home they drove North and wanted to spend some time specifically on the Falls Road – Now if that’s not endorsement of an emerging product then I don’t know what is!!

Public art in the Community

In this Blog we have Deirdre Mackel telling us about public art in West Belfast and why it is important.

Public art in the Community

By

Deirdre Mackel

Arts Programme Manager

Upper Springfield Development Trust

I have always had a strong affinity for West Belfast as I was born here and have always lived here. So I am very passionate about the work that I do. Before starting my job as Arts Programme Manager for the Upper Springfield development Trust I worked as a freelance artist after graduating in Fine Art from the University of Ulster. I feel really privileged to be in a job where I can make a difference to peoples’ lives by bringing art right into the heart of the community.

What is integral to the work of the Public art in the Community Programme is the community participation. We run arts programmes that are very much shaped by the groups involved. Local people get the opportunity to work with various artists in a wide variety of artforms and the results of their work are publicly showcased and celebrated on the streets of Upper Springfield and West Belfast.

The ethos behind the programme has always been community development through art, using participative public art as a tool in physical regeneration.

The work is both cultural and issue based; for example we use art to raise awareness of suicide, car crime, etc. in a very positive and constructive way.

The project is now delivering on the West Belfast Public Art Strategy and a lot of the focus has been on participatory arts. The vibrant public artworks range from hand carved stone sculptures, artistic street furniture, murals and mosaics, to the more recent development of our temporary public art showcases, making positive use of open spaces throughout West Belfast. The project has gained a very high profile and received various awards.

                  

Some recent public art project examples include;

Dreamscapes

This Project aims to explore creative, aspirational responses to our rapidly changing urban environment through innovative approaches to participative arts. It provides a creative outlet, for people to reflect on changes in the environment and collectively express themselves through different forms of visual art.

The results of the project will be seen at a temporary public art showcase on the old Andersonstown Barracks site on 15^th March. This will be part of Féile an Phobail’s    Féile an Earraigh.

Brewerys Wake

We have been engaging local schools, groups and ex brewery employees in the Brewery’s Wake Public art in the community project. The project is using local history and participative arts to explore the legacy of the recently demolished Bass Ireland Brewery, one of the former largest employers in West Belfast.

Salvaged artefacts and photographs from the Brewery were used to generate creative discussion and ideas. A Brewery’s Wake house is being created and will be displayed at the public art showcase on the old Andersonstown Barracks site on 27^th March as part of Féile an Phobail’s Draíocht children’s’ festival.

Engage in Art Age

The aim of this project was to increase the quality of life of older people in our community by creatively addressing what it means to grow old, in West Belfast.

It consisted of workshops in visual art, storytelling and creative writing and resulted in an outdoor showcase of public art on the old Andersonstown RUC barracks site in October 2011.

It addressed issues which the older participants identified and the project provided a voice to creatively tell their stories through the written word and imagery.

This also resulted in a limited edition book with a foreword written by Gerry Adams and a further series of publications to be launched at a celebratory event in the Upper Springfield Development Trust on 3^rd February at 11.30 am.

Inter-Faces

Upper Springfield Development Trust Arts Team and Youth Teams, Féile an Phobail, Coiste and Divis Youth worked jointly on public art projects which have transformed a part of the North Howard Street Interface.

Each young person created their own design of their Pac-Man avatar face and all fourteen large scale faces are now installed on the palisade fencing at North Howard Street, straddling both sides of the Falls and Shankill interface.

This unique project has engaged young people from each side of the Interface. It has encouraged those young people to think about their own identities and the identities of others. It is also quite a humorous way for young people to portray themselves and their views of interfaces and the peace walls which are part of their everyday lives.

This project won the overall Public Arts Award in the West Belfast Environmental Achievement Awards.

I would like to thank the funders of the project for making all this work possible. These projects are funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. They are also funded by Department for Social Development’s Belfast Regeneration Office. The Engage in Art Age project was funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Arts and Older Peoples’ Programme.

Up and coming events:

The following public arts events are all open to the public and free of charge.

3^rd February Upper Springfield Development Trust, Book Launch of the Engage in Art Age Arts and Older Peoples’ creative writing book.

15^th March 2012 Dreamscapes Public Art Showcase on the old Andersonstown Barracks site.

27^th March 2012 Brewery’s Wake Public Art Showcase on the old Andersonstown Barracks site.

For details Tel  028 90236677

Email: deirdre.mackel@usdt.co.uk