Lord Mayor of Belfast Sinn Fein Councillor Deirdre Hargey last week delivered a keynote address at the World Winter Cities Annual Meeting in Belfast's sister city of Shenyang, China, and with Visit Belfast CEO Gerry Lennon participated in showcasing Belfast tourism to key members of the Chinese travel trade.

Ms. Hargey said:

"Our attention is on highlighting business and leisure tourism and establishing Belfast as a destination of choice for the Chinese market."

The Belfast City Council set a spending limit of 25K GBP for this trip - an expenditure that some in the city deemed excessive.

But if Belfast has the necessary airline connectivity and hotel capacity, payback should be fast.