North's parades could be a major draw

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS:THE VIOLENCE surrounding a small number of parades in the North is undermining attempts to make the 12th of July celebrations a tourist draw, according to Northern Secretary Owen Paterson.

In recent years the 12th of July has undergone something of a rebranding exercise with the support of Tourism Ireland, which is the all-Ireland tourism body, and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

The biggest parade in Belfast has been renamed Orangefest in an attempt to attract foreign tourists to what the Orange Order describes as the biggest cultural festival of its kind in Europe. In addition, five non-contentious parades are chosen each year on the basis that they will be attractive to tourists because they are some of the best run in the North.

However, attempts to rebrand the celebrations were undermined by serious rioting in the Ardoyne area of Belfast which left 55 police officers injured. The Australian, New Zealand and United States governments issued warnings advising tourists against attending parades as a result.

Speaking at the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee this week, Mr Paterson said the “vast majority” of the 3,800 parades in the North went off well and “it almost certainly” brought in tourism. However, he said, the violent parades “totally distort the world view of what happens” in the North every 12th of July.

DUP MP David Simpson, who is a member of the Orange Order, said the success of the Apprentice Boys parade in Derry this summer showed that such parades could be a tourist draw.

“A lot of good and positive things can come out,” he said, “we saw that in Londonderry. There was a protest there, but there was no violence there this year and that brought in a lot of visitors to the walls of Derry and all the rest of it.”

The Parades Commission, which decides on the route of contentious parades, is to be replaced at the end of the year.

The new Tory-led administration in Britain has said that it will restore the commission unless steps are taken locally to agree bodies to replace it.

A spokeswoman for Tourism Ireland said that while people from the Republic might find it strange that the 12th of July could be a tourism draw, visitors from abroad would have none of the historic baggage and would see it merely as a cultural event.