Steve Rogerson takes a short flight to Belfast and explores its smart city transition.

I went to Belfast this month. And, despite living only around 370km from the Northern Ireland capital, this was my first ever visit. Now, that shouldn’t be any real surprise given that for most of my 68 years, Belfast was simply not a contender for any holiday list.

That changed 27 years ago with the Good Friday Agreement and the city has steadily been transforming itself into a welcoming tourist destination, though the 2025 guide I bought did still warn of areas to avoid, especially after dark. I obeyed.

As with any travel I do these days, I like to sample where they are on the smart city curve and I did a little pre-trip research, but before I go on, I have to mention the Titanic. It was built in Belfast and you can’t spend any time there without knowing that. There is a whole interactive museum (www.titanicbelfast.com) devoted just to the doomed vessel, plus wherever you go you can see posters of the ship or buy Titanic souvenirs. They are proud of the Titanic, I mean really, really, really proud.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she texted me back saying: “They do know what happened to it, right?” I did wonder.

Talking of interactive, Paula Fee from the City Innovation Office emailed me some suggestions of smart-city places of interest, topped by the AR experience at Belfast City Hall. The city partnered BT to launch a 5G-powered immersive experience as part of the free visitor exhibition at the building. The trial was due to end in March but its success with visitors was so good, it is still going on..

And it was good. You can pick up one of their tablets or use your own device and wander round the rooms pointing at things and learning about Belfast history and language. You can even play street football and use a virtual catapult to knock cans off a wall. Fun, yes, but not really in the premier league of smart city innovations.

That said, one thing I pointed at showed me the position of all the bikes and e-bikes connected to the public hire scheme. There didn’t seem many, but I thought maybe this was just a demo. Yet, in my four days walking around, I did see some bike stations but not a single bike in use. Given that in most cities these days you spend a lot of time dodging the micromobility users as you walk round, this was a surprise. They are extending the scheme (www.belfastcity.gov.uk/News/New-operator-revealed-for-Belfast-Bikes-scheme-and) so maybe it will get worse, I mean better.

The city is also running trials of Bigbelly smart bins (bigbelly.com), and I did spot some of these clever 5G-connected objects that let the authorities know when they need emptying, which apparently reduces waste-collecting fuel consumption and GHG emissions by around 70%.

An EU four year programme, called Belfast Hub-In (smartbelfast.city/story/belfast-hub-in-funding), has just ended and supported a number of trials of digital technologies to enrich the city’s Maritime Mile in the Titanic Quarter. I walked the said mile, but mainly to see the six giant stained-glass windows depicting the six seasons of the Game of Thrones TV show, much of which was made in the region.

My visit was just a little too late for a showcase event in early April at the City Hall for the second phase of the Augment the City competition in which ten tech companies are helping enrich the Belfast region’s visitor experiences using immersive technologies (smartbelfast.city/story/immersive-technologies-give-glimpse-of-tourisms-future).

Belfast and Sejong in South Korea have signed an innovation twins roadmap deal (smartbelfast.city/story/belfast-sejong-innovation-twins) to harness urban innovation and support growth in both regions. This includes a number of partners such as local universities and innovation hubs.

Other project that Paula told me about include looking at nature-based options for tackling climate change and upgrading the Cathedral Gardens into a public space with some clever ideas you can find out about at www.belfastcity.gov.uk/business-and-investment/physical-investment/cathedral-gardens.

So that is Belfast, or what I found out about Belfast in four days, and it looks like the city has many smart ideas, which hopefully won’t sink on their maiden voyage and could give the citizens something worthy of their pride.