Developers urged to recreate Titanic rooms

[Andrew Clarkson]

Developers have been urged that exact replicas of rooms in the Titanic should be created in a hotel to be built in Belfast.

The hotel will be located at the old headquarters of the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the majestic liner was built.

A hotel is part of the centre piece Titanic Signature Project which is at the heart of the redevelopment of 185 acres of former shipyard land on the river Lagan in Belfast.

A planning application to turn the listed redbrick former shipyard HQ into a five star 90-bedroom boutique hotel was lodged last week.

An MLA urged the developers, Titanic Quarter Ltd, to unashamedly go for the commercial market and replicate rooms on the ill-fated liner.

David McNarry, the deputy chairman of the Assembly's Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee, said he was sure the developers may have already had the idea - but just in case they had not he wanted to get it into the public domain.

It was important that attractions were created that ordinary people could buy into and the new hotel should have rooms available for hire and to stay in which were exact reproductions of the public and state rooms aboard the Titanic, he said.

"I would be willing to wager that the demand for those rooms would be astronomical from right across the globe," said Mr McNarry.

In creating signature projects the spending patterns of ordinary people should never be lost sight of, said the Ulster Unionist finance spokesman.

"The magic of being able to stay in a room which was an exact recreation of a room on the Titanic itself would have enormous pulling power on the local, national and international tourist market.

"Equally, being able to hold events in function rooms which were exact reproductions of the dining room and other public rooms in the Titanic would be irresistible.

"So let us pitch our Titanic market product unashamedly at the commercial market where the money is - just like the original luxury liner," said Mr McNarry.

Source: http://u.tv