American delegates to the 2022 Belfast Homecoming will be among the first international visitors to get a glimpse of the new Ulster University city centre campus.

The multi-million pound cathedral of learning, set to transform the north inner-city, is among the biggest university capital investments in Europe this century. 

And Mike Cusick, Chair of the American Irish Legislators Society in the New York State Legislature, who will lead a delegation of assemblymembers and senators to Belfast says the new campus will fuel US interest in Belfast. 

“We have been receiving regular updates on this ambitious plan in our engagements in both Belfast and New York over the past ten years,” he said, “but to see the dream realised will be a great thrill for our members. I have no doubt but that this will make many potential partners in the US sit up and take notice of the great work going on at the University of Ulster and, indeed, in the modern Belfast.”

Also topping the agenda for the visitors will be a briefing on 'Belfast Stories' the new attraction planned for Belfast and including the listed Bank of Ireland Art Deco building on the corner of North Street and Royal Avenue. 

During the Homecoming, visitors will also be feted at the Eastside Visitor Centre on the Newtownards Road in East Belfast and at Áras Uí Chonghaile on the Falls Road before visiting the first new whiskey distillery in the Belfast area in a century: Hinch Distillery in Temple, Co Down.

The highlight of the Homecoming will be a gala dinner and Belfast Ambassador Medal Presentation in the Titanic Hotel on Thursday 29 September.