Almost £17m was spent during the Tall Ships festival this summer.
The maritime boost was enough to sustain 902 jobs with almost half a million people attending last August's Belfast celebrations, Belfast City Council said.
The four-day event in the docks area featured concerts, fireworks and continental markets as well as the fleet of ships.
A city council minute said: "Considering the poor weather conditions these figures and results are a measure of the overwhelming success of the event."
Around 40 Tall Ships dropped anchor in Belfast as part of a race across the Atlantic and back which is staged every eight to ten years.
They left Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a trip which began in Spain and called at Tenerife, Bermuda and the US.
The last race was 2000 and the last time it visited Belfast was 1991.
Belfast City Council contributed £1.1m towards a total cost of £2.4m.
Fast food stalls, funfair and markets lined the waterfront and visitors travelled from across Ireland.
Around three quarters of a million people attended some element of the Tall Ships with almost a quarter of a million from outside Northern Ireland.
The council said 94% of visitors rated the event positively.
The council's development committee agreed in principal to submit a bid to host a Tall Ships race in 2015.
The Titanic Made In Belfast festival and the Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival are expected to be organised next year.
© Press Association