Every destination is on its own journey towards greater regenerative destination management. Its sustainability efforts can take many forms. We hope you find inspiration for your destination in our ongoing series of best practice examples. With sustainability in mind, we all win!

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Destination: Belfast

Challenge:

Like elsewhere in the UK and Ireland, demand for food banks is growing in Belfast, in the last 5 years, the need for food banks has increased by 128%​

Solution:

The sustainable tourism-focused “Changing the Menu. For Good” project will enlist venues, caterers and event organisers to directly raise funds for local food banks, including The People’s Kitchen. Event organisers can choose between four headline options:

1. donating the financial equivalent of a fourth course,

2. donating a proportion of catering costs incurred during an event,

3. rounding up delegate or catering fees, or

4. donating directly.​

Impact: 

The pilot project launched in Sept 2022, but the initiative is already supported by a group of founding partners in the event industry; Hastings Hotels, Titanic Belfast, Hospitality Belfast/Yellow Door, Food NI, Conference Partners International, Crowne Plaza Belfast, Event-ful and Queen’s University Belfast.

UPDATE 3 October 2022: “Today marks 1 month since we officially launched the initiative, and we already have pledges totalling £3800. According to a local food poverty charity FareshareNI, for every £1 donated this could provide 4 children’s meals so we estimate the money generated could have resulted in up to 15,200 children’s meals. On top of that, we had a conference in town this week that asked all delegates to bring a tin and a toy for the Christmas appeal at the local food bank we are partnered with. This resulted in 150 tins and 150 toys being donated. The other huge positive is we have raised a lot of awareness & PR within Belfast and NI of the great work that food banks do, the fact they receive no government funding at all, and the challenges they face right now as demand is skyrocketing in light of the cost of living crisis.”- Jac Callan, Sustainability and Impact Manager, Visit Belfast

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More:

– Belfast holds 19th position in the 2021 GDS-Index. ​For more about the destination’s sustainability contributions, please click here. 

– Learn more about Visit Belfast here.