National - Wales

Visit Wales is the Welsh Governments tourism team, within the Economy, Skills and Natural Resources

Group, its role is to promote Welsh tourism and assist the tourism industry.

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Visit Wales has taken over the functions of the former Wales Tourist Board, an Assembly Sponsored

Public Body. The role of Visit Wales is to support the Welsh tourism industry, improve tourism in Wales

and provide a strategic framework within which private enterprise can achieve sustainable growth and

success, so improving the social and economic wellbeing of Wales. The mission of Visit Wales is to

"maximise tourism's contribution to the economic, social and cultural prosperity of Wales".

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The 2020-2025 priorities for the visitor economy can be found in ‘Welcome to Wales’

 

Ambition and goals summary

• Our ambition is to grow tourism for the good of Wales. This means economic growth that delivers benefits for people and places, including environmental sustainability, social and cultural enrichment and health benefits. This plan takes as its basis Wales' distinctive Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and ‘mainstreams’ its vision through everything we do. This reflects the clear view of industry that we need to strike the right balance between economic growth and our wider wellbeing as a country.

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• The primary goal will be to harness the potential for tourism to improve the wider economic wellbeing of Wales. Tourism is a rare sector that takes jobs to all places. We want our sector to grow purposefully throughout the year, helping to stimulate prosperity in urban and rural areas. Our main aim is a sustained level of growth with a focus on off-peak periods – and to contribute more, through tourism, to Wales' general GVA. We will monitor the growth of the sector and its contribution to Wales' wider economic performance. We also believe that economic prosperity is the key to delivering other wellbeing goals.

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• In-line with industry feedback however, we will implement an ‘economy plus’ approach. Our goals now include growing tourism in a way that also delivers benefits for people and places including environmental sustainability, social and cultural enrichment, and health benefits. Doing this will only serve to underpin the integrity and economic success of our sector in the long-term. We know this is not simple. It will mean working and thinking differently, making some difficult choices, and doing more to understand the impact of our decisions.

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• Ultimately, all of this work is about making a difference to people’s lives, be they visitors, local stakeholders or business owners. This plan will ensure that economic growth and wider wellbeing benefits ultimately enhance the quality of life of everyone we engage with, whether they are here for a day, for a week, or for a lifetime. This brings people to the very centre of our proposals.

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• In summary, this means being inherently Welsh, with a global outlook – and balancing two elements Bro and Byd.

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• Tourism is committed to sustainable growth and is a sector that fully acknowledges that those qualities that attract visitors to Wales – landscapes, culture, language and heritage - need to be safeguarded, creating long term value and jobs within our communities.

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• In a highly competitive global industry, it will be the experiences that will differentiate Wales from other destinations. The vision for Wales: will provide the warmest of welcomes, outstanding quality, excellent value for money and memorable, authentic experiences to every visitor.

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• There is a general upward trend in the visitor economy across Wales, driven in part by the marketing approach taken by Visit Wales (2015 onwards), including the overarching Wales brand (values and principles) that seek to challenge historic perceptions of Wales.

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• The increasing focus is therefore on the sustainable growth challenge – quality over quantity; value over volume. In the future we will focus on the following target markets:  ​

1. New staycation markets - attract new, high-value visitors from across Britain to come to Wales, to stay longer and spend more in our communities, seeking value-for-time over value-for-money from high-quality experiences.

2. International visitors that are new to Wales - focus our development and marketing on core growth international markets – Ireland, Germany and near European countries and the USA.

3. The people of Wales - Welsh people are important to our tourism economy too, and promoting tourism within Wales creates confidence, cohesion and opportunities at grass-roots level.

 

• The future will focus on a strengthened product-led approach to developing and marketing tourism in Wales. This means working with iconic, high quality, reputation-changing products and events…it’s all about quality visitor experiences.