Robin Newton MBE MLA

Councillor Robin Newton, East Belfast DUP MLA, has said that the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau have serious questions to answer following the Tourism Minister, Arlene Foster’s refusal today to approve a pod cast designed to guide tourists on Belfast tours. The Minister pointed out, despite the protests of Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey, it was not balanced and was biased towards one community.

Robin Newton said,

“Tourism is at the heart of plans to grow the Northern Ireland, and we have much to offer. I welcome all innovative measures to promote this sector of our economy it must be done in a manner which reflects a true picture of historical events.

However, this pod cast provided neither that balanced nor accurate view, and it is concerning that it was produced by those with significant access to public and private sector funding.

The Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau, which I acknowledge has been involved in many excellent projects, have questions to answer on this occasion.

The VCB needs to clarify immediately its role in producing this piece of work, and did it approve it: can it confirm how much of its resources was committed to it; how did it undertake its research given the finished production, and how does it now intend to restore the confidence of ALL the community in its work?

The whole community must have confidence that Northern Ireland is reflected in the best possible light and when tourism enters into the sensitive subject of our recent past, great care must be taken to ensure that it reflects an accurate account, not serving up biased and indeed, offensive material which can be viewed as little more than propaganda.

The questions I have posed must be answered satisfactorily if we are to have confidence in their future work, and I await their answer with interest.”