How the Simpleview CMS is helping Visit Belfast to achieve a truly authentic visitor experience

Overview

In Belfast, no two visits are ever quite the same. Yet in this cityscape — a place where the mood shifts and shimmers with the light of the day — newcomers are welcomed as friends and fresh experiences soon become joyful memories. At every touch and every turn, the city of Belfast responds anew to those who explore it, revealing something different to each and every traveller. Through the launch of its new website, Visit Belfast sought to capture the ever-shifting mood of the city, building a digital presence that is not only true to the place it represents, but truly responsive to the needs of those it serves.

SITUATION

A shift in perspective, a vision renewed

In August 2025, Visit Belfast — the destination marketing organisation (DMO) that represents Northern Ireland’s capital — launched its new destination site, a space backed by the power of the Simpleview CMS. Speaking of the impetus behind the launch of this space — one that encompasses its cruise, corporate, and partner channels — Gavin McKenna, head of marketing, digital, and communications at Visit Belfast, explained that, initially, “The aim really was just to refresh and bring the websites up to date to fit the current needs of a traveller.”

However, this original vision changed over time, with Gavin and the wider team at Visit Belfast seeking to move away from a conventional digital brochure style of site. The goal soon became something much more profound, with the DMO seeking to ensure this new presence would become part of the very fabric of Belfast itself. The challenge was to incorporate imagery and video generated from a different range of channels — including via social media, dynamic content, and user-generated content (UGC) — to offer up a site that could shift and transform to the needs of its visitors, sparking delight and inspiration at every touch, click, or scroll.

For Visit Belfast, this shift in perspective was brought on by a deep understanding of the importance of the role that certain types of content — particularly video and social media — now have within the wider destination marketing industry. “In 2025, I gave our team a lot more autonomy to start posting more content and doing more with their social media. As that was growing, you were seeing how trends were moving,” explains Gavin.

The rise of TikTok as a platform for travel-related searches, changes in Google indexing, and the rise of AI summaries — created from user experiences shared on social media — meant this medium was an indispensable channel for engagement for Visit Belfast. “When all that was happening, I felt that this is was the right move for us,” he adds.
 

SOLUTION

A site that offers a truly responsive experience

Thanks to the agility of the CMS, Visit Belfast was able to easily integrate these different types of content — particularly UGC and dynamic — into the build of its new site. Months on from its launch, this is a strategy that has allowed Visit Belfast to seamlessly fold these content types and streams into its digital ecosystem, offering up a site that is part of a much wider (and more responsive) user journey.

But more than this, Gavin explains that the functionality of the new website has enriched the relationship that Visit Belfast has with its many partners. “There was a time where partners were fighting for visibility on the website,” says Gavin, but thanks to the implementation of this type of content, the DMO’s partners now have a vested interest in the visitor experience. “What is happening with dynamic content is that — based on people searching and how we tag the website — you're giving them more of an authentic time,” explains Gavin, adding that the content that appears on the website is suggested to a visitor because they are “genuinely interested” in a particular topic.

For Gavin, the solution to a better website experience isn’t found in simply presenting visitors with pretty pictures, but in creating a real sense of authenticity. “The more authentic the imagery, the more the trust builds with the brand,” he explains. “We want the user to see Belfast authentically. By working with Simpleview, we’re able to do that.”
 

RESULTS

A tangible increase in engagement

Today, the DMO is reaping the rewards that come from embracing a true sense of authenticity. Indeed, its more responsive digital presence — enhanced and enriched by the implementation of fresh content types — has been well received by visitors and users, as well as by Visit Belfast’s wider network of partners.

The new site has had a measurable impact on the latter group: While the number of visits has consistently remained at 250,000 monthly users, the dwell time of these sessions has increased since the website’s launch. Before, says Gavin, this metric was approximately one minute. But now, “We have found that our users are staying longer, on average six minutes.” On the back of this, Gavin and his team have also seen a significant boost in the number of users registering to receive emails via the new site’s pop-up tool, yet another indication that Visit Belfast is offering the kind of experience that truly resonates with visitors.

As Gavin explains, this increase in engagement is also being felt by the DMO’s partners, who are “seeing a higher traction of referral traffic from our site to their sites. ... We've seen an uplift of around 15% to partner profile from partner profiles to outbound clicks.” With Visit Belfast being so strongly led by its partners, this is a “big win,” says Gavin.

But results can’t always be quantified by hard statistics and metrics. Indeed, the present iteration of Visit Belfast’s site is itself the direct result of the feedback painstakingly collected by Gavin and his team to better understand their target audience of visitors — especially those within the Northern Irish and Republic of Ireland markets. These two sets of travellers, says Gavin, “are very different and they want different things, so you want to show them different experiences.”
 

From collaboration to transformation

Speaking more broadly of the collaboration between Visit Belfast and Simpleview, a Granicus company, Gavin says, “The experience has been phenomenal.” The careful provision of thorough technical support has helped to execute Visit Belfast’s vision for its site from design and project management through to the integration of dynamic content and onward to the process of final testing.

Yet for Gavin, it was the ease with which feedback was received and acted upon that has been most impressive. “The team are so open. I absolutely think the world of them from a technical perspective,” he says, adding that, likewise, the team at Simpleview was quick to advise against functionality that would not serve to enhance Visit Belfast’s digital presence. “They challenge you,” adds Gavin.

But as he and the team at the DMO look to the future, this is just the beginning of things to come for Visit Belfast. “We’re at the start of our digital transformation,” he says. Yet in a city where every experience and even each day is different, a new beginning is the perfect place to be.

If you’d like to learn more about Visit Belfast's new website — winner of the SME category at the 2026 Spider Awards — register for EMEA Summit, where Gavin will be sharing his insights on Travel Inspiration in the Age of Social First on 30 September at 2:30 pm.