Is 2012 the start of something great for Northern Ireland or long term will it represent one of a series of missed opportunities?

The Titanic building in Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre will open as part of the NI2012 celebrations, not to mention Derry City of Culture 2013, with expectations that visitor numbers will significantly be boosted well beyond 2012, generating an additional £140million in revenue for the Northern Ireland economy and creating over 3,500 jobs.

This column has, on occasion, been critical of the Northern Ireland Executive in its failings to make best use of its resources in injecting our economy with the adrenalin that’s needed to spark new business and awaken potential entrepreneurs.

However, credit where credit is due.   Whilst tourism, just like the renewable energy and the agri-food sectors, provides tremendous potential for growth, a variety of controllable and uncontrollable factors have in the past restricted its development but recent achievements by the Executive should be recognised.

Earlier this year Minister Arlene Foster and others were resolute in how we must capitalise on our new opportunities, not least our golfing ambassadors’ success to really ignite our tourism industry.  It is with this resolve along with great work by the team at Royal Portrush and support from our golfers, that we can rightly feel that we are turning a tourism corner with the imminence of the Royal Portrush Irish Open 2012. 

It is no mean feat to achieve this, a year ahead of schedule and especially in this year of all years, 2012, to build upon the momentum and goodwill that there is with the many other opportunities to really market Northern Ireland as an outstanding and unique visitor destination.

This achievement has also breathed life back into what was once a great competition but had lost some of its gloss in recent times due to sponsorship uncertainty and a poor position in the European tour timetable.  Now with commitment to attend from many of the world’s top golfers and a slot a couple of weeks before the Open, we can expect an influx of golfing visitors to the North coast who would never have considered visiting these parts of the Irish coastline before.

As we all know Royal Portrush and Royal County Down are amongst the best links courses anywhere in the world and demonstrate what can be achieved when you have world class facilities which hopefully will result in a successful review by the R & A with the Open coming in the not too distant future.

But this brings me back to the elephant in the room– the inability to deliver a national stadium.  What potentially is coming down the line for golf re-iterates what a missed opportunity not developing a national stadium was.  There is talk now about the Irish Open coming North of the border every four years, could you imagine the economic windfall there would be if we could share some of the Irish rugby internationals with the Aviva?

Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of what a top rugby game means economically, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce estimated that €18m will be spent by out-of-state visitors as a result of an RBS Six Nations clash taking place at the Aviva Stadium on a Saturday and a report from the Smurfit Business School states that the impact of an RBS 6 Nations weekend can be up 90 Million euro for the Irish economy.

With a state of the art stadium we would, with time, surely have had a strong call for the IRFU to take games North of the border not to mention the potential for linking with Scotland, the Republic and Wales to host other major sporting events of the future.

But that is not to be in the foreseeable future and we must learn the harsh lessons of not being able to agree politically. In the meantime the tourism industry and hospitality sector must build upon the achievements that have been made and shout loud about what we have to offer. 

What the Irish Open coming to Portrush has shown us is the power and influence of our golfing ambassadors, Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.  Northern Ireland is blessed with ambassadors across many genres with people who are as passionate about this place as anyone.  When listening to people like James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson talking, I’m frequently struck by their abiding passion and love of Northern Ireland and this is something we should harness more. There are so many niche markets – food, fishing, hill walking, caving, the list could go on and on.  When you start to think about what you like about here it doesn’t take long to see why people would like to visit. 

They don’t have to be living here they just need to tell the story of  their very positive experiences of the vibrancy which represents all that is good about Northern Ireland. 

We must also continue to communicate our value for money message. Our public transport, hotels, restaurants, bars and tourist attractions regularly come top of the list for value and friendlessness, we must maximise these assets. 

Of course we can’t ignore the issues, the clear out, and at times the fall out, from the 12th in the middle of the holiday season, our licensing and trading laws, the need for further investment in our infrastructure and the need to once and for all grasp the  community relations nettle.  However, every region has issues and recent events highlight just how much we have to be positive about. There is no doubt there are issues that must be overcome but we are demonstrating that we won’t let them determine us and that we are collectively addressing and correcting them.

I do think our community representatives are beginning to show leadership about our shared future and are committed to ensuring our differences will not impale our potential for growth.

It’s up to us all, including the media who have a role to play in being balanced in their reporting.  This is for all our futures, we have the opportunity in 2012 to position ourselves on the world stage for all the right reasons and with great people and great locations we have the key components to deliver it.  Every single person in Northern Ireland has a role to play so let’s be positive ambassadors and do what needs to be done to make 2012 the start of something great!