A major marketing campaign to promote Belfast as a 'City of Music' has been launched today.

The £500,000 initiative, which will target over 10 million potential holidaymakers in Great Britain, tunes in to Belfast's rich musical heritage in a bid to attract more tourists to the city this autumn.

Tourism Minister Arlene Foster (pictured) launched the project and said: "If we are to further boost tourism we must target specific markets.

"Encouraging holiday makers from GB to come over and enjoy the thriving music and festival scene here in Belfast is an ideal way to promote everything the city has to offer.

"The intensive programme of marketing activity over the coming weeks will emphasise Belfast's wealth of musical talent and the tremendous choice that awaits visitors to the city.

"Given the later than ever booking pattern, we still have real opportunities to persuade people to take holidays and city breaks in Belfast and Northern Ireland," she said.

The new Tourism Ireland advertisements for Belfast, fronted by well-known DJ and TV presenter Annie Mac, will run on 60 national and regional radio stations serving over nine million listeners in GB.

Belfast ads will also be heard by 3.5 million British users of 'Spotify', the music download website.

Fun online ads will also target music-lovers on websites like Yahoo!, MSN and Last.fm.

Using the tagline 'You Get To Choose the Line-Up', the ads will highlight a diverse range of local musicians - such as Anthony Toner, Eilidh Patterson, Panama Kings and Cashier No. 9.

Online direct marketing messages about Belfast will be sent to one million known music and city break enthusiasts around Britain.

Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said: "In these very competitive times, it is important to have 'stand-out' and compelling reasons to visit Belfast and Northern Ireland and this new campaign will capitalise on and highlight the continued growth in the festival scene and many musical events around the city.

"While the number of British people travelling abroad - to all destinations - has been impacted by the economic downturn, GB remains the largest and most important market for overseas tourism to Northern Ireland.

"We know that hundreds of thousands of British people will take a short break or holiday between now and the end of the year. Tourism Ireland aims to win as much of that business as possible."

(BMcC/GK)