Wales behind Scotland and England in International Tourists

Plaid Cymru’s Tourism Spokesperson Dai Lloyd AM has claimed that the Welsh Government needs to do more to attract international visitors to Wales as part of its tourism strategy.

Dr. Lloyd raised the issue at the Senedd today, and the Minister for Tourism, Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM, will now bring forward a statement which will outline the work that his Government is doing in this area, whilst also identifying challenges and opportunities for the welsh tourism sector.

Dr. Lloyd pointed to data within the Wales Tourism Performance Report, released last month, which showed that whilst the number of international visitor trips to Wales between January and September 2017 rose by 6.1% on the previous year, Scotland managed a 14.3% increase. Similarly, despite London and Scotland experiencing strong increases in terms of the level of international tourism spend over the same period, Wales experienced an 8.4% drop.

Dr. Lloyd stated:

“The Welsh Government’s Wales Tourism Performance Report shows us that last year, all nations within the UK experienced increases in the volume of international trips, but Scotland and London performed particularly strongly, and whilst the number of trips to Wales increased, spend in Wales during the same period decreased by 8%, in contrast to spend growth across rest of the UK by some 11%.

“It is clear that the Welsh Government has more to do in terms of attracting international visitors to Wales, and increasing average spend, when compared to other nations of the UK.

“The British Council recently published research comparing the ‘soft power’ of sub-national countries and regions and examining how they can build their international profile, and this report showed that Wales faces many challenges and opportunities as it looks to develop its international visitor market.

“Despite Welsh Government efforts, it is clear that more can be done to grow Wales’ profile and international visitor numbers.

“It is important that the Minister for Tourism brings forward a statement on the work that is going on in this field, his response to the British Council report, and also to set out his vision of how he sees the international tourism strategy developing over future years.”