Profits advance 63% at Titanic Belfast to top €4.9m

Visitor attraction’s success delivers €1.95m dividend for Donegal developer Pat Doherty

Nine-year-old Aoise Taggert surveys a model of the wreck of the ill-fated liner at Titanic Belfast. File photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Nine-year-old Aoise Taggert surveys a model of the wreck of the ill-fated liner at Titanic Belfast. File photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Profits at Titanic Belfast increased last year by almost two-thirds to £4.2 million (€4.96 million).

More than 900,000 people visited in the 12 months to the end of last March and this contributed to revenues increasing by 10 per cent from £16.3 million to £17.9 million.

The 9 per cent increase in visitors helped Titanic Belfast Ltd's pretax profits increase from £2.5 million to £4.2 million.

The visitor attraction celebrates Belfast as the birthplace of the ill-fated transatlantic liner. Ninety per cent of the 902,165 visitors to the venue last year came from outside Northern Ireland, with one in five international visitors stating that Titanic Belfast was the main reason for their visit.

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The attraction comprises nine galleries within the Titanic Belfast building. The company also provides venues for conferences, events and banqueting.

The centre opened in March 2012.

Its success enabled Donegal developer Pat Doherty make a further return on his investment with a dividend payment of £1.65 million, up slightly on the £1.61 million he received the previous year.

The company employed 382 full-time and part-time workers during the year, and engaged with 1,223 suppliers. Staff costs totalled £4 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times