The NITB said it was keen to interest the Israeli tour operators

Tour operators from Israel, India and Japan are in Belfast to see what Northern Ireland has to offer to holidaymakers in their countries.

They are among 200 representatives from 161 tour companies across the world who are in the city for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board's (NITB) annual Tourism Workshop.

The tour operators, from 22 countries, kicked off their visit with a welcome evening at St George's Market.

They toured the market to see handicrafts, produce and local cuisine from across Northern Ireland, accompanied by traditional music and dance.

More than half of the tour operators are expected to take part in a number of familiarisation trips over the weekend in County Down, County Fermanagh, the Sperrin Mountains and Londonderry.

They are to meet more than 120 delegates from the local tourism industry who are showcasing what Northern Ireland has to offer.

'Positive future'

NITB chief executive Alan Clarke said he was delighted to see such a large number of international operators.

"The NITB workshop, now in its 13th year, provides a unique opportunity for local tourism providers to meet buyers who have come here to include Northern Ireland in their programmes, or to expand their existing programmes," he said.

"NITB is taking a focused approach to marketing short-term breaks in closer-to-home markets, and through our continued partnership with Tourism Ireland in overseas markets, we are confident of a positive future for Northern Ireland tourism."

After a weekend exploring Northern Ireland, the operators will move on to Dublin.

However, an Australian tour operator said there should be a single event at one venue.

"There should not be separate southern Ireland and Northern Ireland events," he said.

We are particularly keen to interest the Israeli tour operators following the introduction of a weekly flight into Dublin airport from Israel Tourist Board

"If you want to show that it is one tourism product I think it should be in the north one year and in the south the next year.

"This should be done rather than splitting the event over three days into two locations."

Alan Clark rejected claims that people in the rest of Europe and Republic of Ireland were "way ahead" of Northern Ireland in terms of marketing and amenities.

"There has been a huge amount of investment going into the Northern Ireland tourism product over the last 5-10 years," he said.

"We have had some really excellent independent coverage of our tourism product in the last couple of weeks.

"The BBC Holiday programme - one of the most influential holiday programmes in the whole of the UK - had a very positive article on Belfast and indeed the rest of Northern Ireland."

However, he admitted there were "vast improvements" which still had to be made in visitor facilities - especially customer service.

"We are developing new initiatives this year to try and deal with those sorts of issues."

The NITB said it was keen to interest the Israeli tour operators because of a new weekly flight from Israel to Dublin.

"We are talking about high spenders coming to Ireland for a whole week and we want to get them to come north for some of that time," said a spokeswoman.