News from the Assembly shows that visitors spent £159 million less in Wales last year than in 2000.
More significantly, visitor spend in Wales last year was £280 million lower than the year before the Wales Tourist Board was abolished.
Visitor spend in Wales from tourists was £3.4 billion in 2000, falling to £3.2 billion in 2007. In fact this is lower than at any time since 2000.
Perhaps the most depressign aspect is the 18 per cent decline in UK staying visitors, given that much of the recent advertising campaigns (which I personally think are excellent) have been focused on this group.
More significantly, visitor spend in Wales last year was £280 million lower than the year before the Wales Tourist Board was abolished.
Visitor spend in Wales from tourists was £3.4 billion in 2000, falling to £3.2 billion in 2007. In fact this is lower than at any time since 2000.
Perhaps the most depressign aspect is the 18 per cent decline in UK staying visitors, given that much of the recent advertising campaigns (which I personally think are excellent) have been focused on this group.
Comments
It should go like this...
Come to Wales for your holiday because:
We won't bomb you, shoot you, kidnap your children or drown you in a big wave or bury you in an earthquake.
You won't have to crowd into an airport lounge for hours or be terrified to death in a jet aircraft.
We speak English and are within a 3hour drive of practically anywhere in the UK.
That's it. That's all that is needed. None of this bollocks about heritage, sport, activities or a warm welcome in the hills. Keep hiraeth for us not for them.
Sadly, all the fancy media advertising in the world no matter how pretty or expensively produced will EVER change the English's long held (wrong headed) prejudices and perceptions of Wales as being an expensive unfriendly place to go with unpronounceable place names, ghastly industrial landscapes and characters out of the TV series Little Britain.
Tourism is a huge part of the Welsh economy as is small retail and service business. The WAG needs to be more intelligent about how this is promoted and supported. It's not just about the budget.
The ex tourist board is restricted and not able to make quick executive decisions as it once did.
Have we made up the slack in another aspect of teh Tourism offering , or arent there figures to compare that?
The fact that I, and many others in Wales, love these ads, doesn't mean that someone in Leeds, Liverpool or London will.
More importantly, the old holiday scene in Wales is competing with the cheap air destinations supplied by EasyJet and RyanAir. Given this, it will be interesting whether the strength of the euro will bring them back to Wales.
However, as Mam says, I also have this feeling that the bonfire of the quangos has changed the whole ballgame for both tourism and business support.
It is now more about pleasing Ministers rather than the customer and, from my own personal experience, the psyche of many excellent ex-WDA and WTB staff has changed completely, and for the worse.
get a new presenter, how about Cornock and get some backbone - they are so suck arse
oh and give Blammer more time