Capital Region Tourism, the lead tourism body for south east Wales, is using special events during this month’s Wales Tourism Week (27 February – 4 March) to remind tourism businesses about the benefits of partnership working, using local produce and listening to customers.
This is the first year that Wales has decided to ‘go it alone’ for Tourism Week, which is seen as an opportunity to showcase the best that the country has to offer visitors and to champion a recognised priority business sector which brings some £4.3 billion to Wales each year and employs more than 100,000 people during the peak season.
Peter Cole, regional strategy director for Capital Region Tourism (CRT), said: “Wales Tourism Week has always been seized by the industry as an opportunity to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of the sector. This year’s programme sees the launch of the new tourism association for Bridgend; a celebration of local food and drink as the newly refurbished Llanerch Vineyard; and a conference designed to bring local authorities and tourism bodies more closely together.
“Each of the events has been organised by local businesses and are great examples of partnership working within tourism. These events will provide politicians, officials and key stakeholders with a perfect opportunity to see what makes Welsh tourism strong and worthy of investment and development as a priority business sector, as recognised last year by the Welsh Government.”
Karl Schmidtke, Director of Trecco Bay Holiday Park and chair of the new Bridgend Tourism Association, said: “We are delighted to be launching the new association during Wales Tourism Week. It is the culmination of more than a year of work between local businesses and the tourism team at Bridgend council, and heralds a new sense of partnership in the area.
“Our event on 28 February will showcase the Bridgend Bites tourism website, as well as our own launch and a local drive towards using local produce on menus across Bridgend. This is an exciting opportunity to refresh and develop our product.”
Events during Wales Tourism Week include:
28 February
• Bridgend Bites Tourism Conference – 9.30am – Trecco Bay Holiday Park
• Getting the best from TripAdvisor – 6pm – Llechwen Hall Hotel, Llanfabon
29 February
• Developing Membership by Demonstrating Benefits – 9.45am – The Vale Resort, Hensol
• Payback from Feedback (Listen to customers) – 10.30am – Rose & Crown, Porthcawl
1 March
• Local Tipples and Own Made Nibbles: foodie event – 1.30pm – Llanerch Vineyard
Registration for all events can be made at www.capitalregiontourism.org/skills2
