BelfastLad & Co was created and owned by Francis J Higgins of Brown’s Square in Belfast in 2011. The company’s purpose was to deliver high quality authentic tour experiences across Ireland but focusing on Northern Ireland. From a beginning of one walking tour for USA Students the company now delivers twenty tour experiences and contracts and trains independently rated professional guides.  Our tours are Five Star rated by customers from across the world and cover not only sightseeing trips but cultural experiences where driver/guides and walking tour guides explain the buildings, causeways, castles and sites of historical conflict known as the ‘Troubles.’ The company has a management board of four who oversee the strategic direction of the company and they are partners of Visit Belfast, Tourism Northern Ireland and Francis is a member of the Peace Tourism Initiative.

BelfastLad & Co has grown to become the delivery partner of Global Cruises (Miami) for cruise ships calling to Belfast. For these specialist coach tours the company works with other partners such as Belfast Harbour, Visit Belfast and Tourism NI to maximise the visitor experience from booking to reboarding the ship.  All guests are surveyed to ensure they have a high quality experience and we provide a specialist Shorex Manager in Lorraine Welsh to work with each ships Shorex Officer.

Francis J Higgins has been delivering tours relating to the ‘Troubles’ for over 25 years.  He won the NI National Training Award for his projects in 2003 and has delivered tours all over Ireland and Europe and was funded by the British and Irish Governments to deliver highly sensitive excursions and guided tours of Auschwitz working in cooperation with the United States Holocaust museum and Yad Vashem  to ensure ethical tour experiences. The company has a range of experiences in Peace Tourism with the most popular being Conflicted History Black Cab tours with authentic guides who survived the Troubles and are prepared to tell their incredible stories.

The company has always provided digital equipment and tour specific scripts and research information but the company has now strategically decided to train and accredit new inexperienced guides and upskill guides to industry standards with a training and qualification partnership with the Open College Network (NI) through Travel and Training Associates. The course director is Francis J Higgins who is a fully qualified Assessor and Verifier with thirty years experience in the training and qualifications sector.  He won the overall United Kingdom Training Award in 2000 along with other awards in following years.  This new twenty six week course will bring together professional guides, college professors, lecturers, authors and thematic experts and will include full practical training on coach and walking tours including ‘Dark’ Thanatourism.

For BelfastLad & Co the future is simple.  We don’t want to be the biggest like Carlsberg we simply want to probably remain the best independently rated experience delivery company in the UK. We will be investing in our guides and equipment to ensure they have the right tools to be what they are brilliant tour guides and storytellers.