Belfast bus tour company finally reaping benefit of peace accord

"Now if you just look to my right - all of this as far as you can see used to be part of the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff . . . and just over there is where the HMS Titanic was fitted out at the Thompson dry dock."

It's hard to squeeze 150 years of ship-building history into an open-top bus tour and, somehow, the demise of one the world's largest shipbuilders and the loss of thousands of jobs do not seem so bad on a hot, sunny day with the bluest of skies above you.

But as our tour guide points out, the end of shipbuilding in Belfast was a disaster for the city and the people who depended on it. It's hard to imagine what the thousands of men who worked in the shipyard would have made of the hundreds of tourists with their designer sunglasses who each week pause to gaze on the proverbial ghosts of the past here.

There may be no Leo diCaprios lurking in the background, but the birthplace of the Titanic does appear to have a little magic of its own which seems to capture most people's imagination. In the background is the constant noise of development - earthmovers, men shouting instruction at one another and the roar of change is everywhere.

Titanic Quarter is fast becoming one of the highlights of the Belfast City Sightseeing open-top tours. For just €13, the tour introduces you to the past, present and now, thanks to Titanic Quarter, the future.

Every 20 minutes, 70 tourists get a brief glimpse of what the city will have to offer in the future before heading off to see the Shankill Road and take yet more pictures - this time of colourful UVF, UDA and UFF murals.

According to Aidan McCormack, business development manager of the tour company, tourists are as keen to learn about the industrial heritage of the city as they are about the peace walls.

"We've always included the shipyard and now more recently the Titanic Quarter because we believe it's a critical part of the tour. Because of the legacy of immigration, we get a lot of people who had family who worked in the shipyard and they are always very interested in seeing it."

City tours are a relatively new addition to Belfast's tourist offering; the company was initially established in the early 1990s, but it is only in the last four years that it's taken off.

"I think in one way we represent the new Belfast. People really see the tour buses as a symbol of peace, of changing times. There is a lot happening in the city, a huge amount of development, and people get to see that, they see the changes that are taking place."

According to the tour company, there has been a slight increase in the number of visitors booking their services since devolution was restored. It expects this summer to be one of the busiest on record and it is confident that the people of Belfast are going to welcome any potential influx of tourists.

"One thing we have noticed recently with the introduction of the smoking ban is that there are a lot more people in Belfast standing outside pubs and restaurants smoking. Now when they see the tour buses going past they cheer and wave. People are really embracing tourism here, it's a big, big change."