Q&A WitH Conal Harvey
Director At HArcourt Developments & Deputy cHAirmAn titAnic BelfAst At
With the 10th anniversary of Titanic Belfast coming up this year, The Nav sat down with Deputy Chairman, Conal Harvey, to find out how the museum has become one of Ireland’s leading visitor attractions since it opened its doors 10 years ago.
The story of the RMS Titanic is one that’s known around the world, fascinating generations with its romance, glamour and tragedy.
In the city where it was designed, built and launched, the real home of the Titanic, Titanic Belfast is an internationally-renowned attraction dedicated to the ill-fated luxury liner.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Titanic Belfast has attracted millions of visitors keen to discover more about its history and walk the slipways where the ship began its journey to Southampton and then on to its maiden voyage.
The building has also become a landmark attraction in its own right – four giant hulls encased in aluminium shards, towering five storeys high above the former Harland & Wolff shipyard.
“I know the word iconic is over-used, but this truly is an iconic project and building and it’s one that is now regularly used as a backdrop to identify Belfast, that’s how far we’ve progressed,” explains Deputy Chairman at Titanic Belfast, Conal Harvey.
“People see it as a symbol of the modern
Belfast and, although it celebrates and commemorates the heritage of Belfast and the heritage of the shipyard and the whole Titanic story, it’s nonetheless a futuristic building.”
Now one of Ireland’s leading visitor attractions, Titanic Belfast has grown in parallel with the city’s renaissance and its rise in popularity as a city break destination thanks to short-hop flights from Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and other UK airports.
Standing adjacent to Titanic Hotel Belfast which occupies the beautifully restored HQ of Harland and Wolff, it contributed more than £300million to the local economy in its first seven years, far exceeding even the most optimistic pre-launch expectations.
“When Harcourt Developments took on the Titanic Quarter development rights in around 2005 we immediately started thinking about the Titanic project which had been a vague idea in Belfast for decades but never fulfilled,” says Conal. “We felt something of this kind would be a significant centrepiece for Titanic Quarter and would give it international recognition so we set about a journey of defining what that meant, what sort of physical expression, content and business model it would have.
“We went through all of those stages, moving from being just an aspiration to becoming a plan when we were able to get financing for it and support from Government. That took us to mid-2009, when we signed up for the construction of it, and set about delivering it for March 31 2012 to coincide with the centenary of the launch.
“A lot of dates in a project will inevitably move but of course the centenary date was never going to do that so there was quite a pressure to meet that deadline. But we opened on time to an avalanche of interest from international visitors as well as from within the Ireland of Ireland and we’ve been building it from there.” It was crucial, says Conal, that Titanic Belfast was something which the people of Belfast could be proud of.
“That was very important to us and to the other stakeholders. We wanted this to be Belfast’s project; something which was forward-looking and would maybe give people a sense of a new identity even, having come through three decades of Troubles.
“We don’t own the building, it’s now owned by a trust on behalf of the people of Belfast, but we do see ourselves very much as the custodians of a precious piece of history. There are Titanic projects in different parts of the world, but we will always be the home of the Titanic.”
With Covid restrictions and travel restrictions now lifted, Conal says Titanic Belfast is able to look head to its next decade with considerable confidence. “In 2019, before the pandemic hit, about 60% of our visitors were from outside the island of Ireland – when we opened that was more like 40% so that’s grown significantly and travel being back is terribly important to us because that’s where we see a lot of our growth.
“You can only get so much out of the island of Ireland because a lot of people have already been to Titanic Belfast so overseas visitors are vital to us from a footfall point of view. But it’s also about fulfilling the ambition of the city, that this would attract visitors from abroad, and it’s doing that in spades.
“Keeping any attraction evolving is always a challenge, especially when it is one that’s so rooted in historical fact and authenticity, but we are optimistic about the future for a number of reasons.
“We are planning to embark on a significant upgrade of the galleries early next year, which will give people something fresh to come to, and advocacy is more important than ever in the world of social media so we’re confident that our extremely high satisfaction rating will translate into more people coming.”
And then there’s the Titanic backstory itself, of course, which shows no signs of losing its enduring appeal. “The story is such a compelling one, you almost couldn’t make it up for fiction,” agrees Conal. “It does have authentic historic anchorage and we’re very careful to respect that, but then there’s also the romance and I think that combination is what continues to make it so incredibly interesting for people.”