According to a UK travel trade body, the distance and infrastructure between north and south Wales is a hurdle to increasing international tourism.Published on : Friday, February 9, 2018
According to a UK travel trade body, the distance and infrastructure between north and south Wales is a hurdle to increasing international tourism.
Chief executive of UK Inbound, Deirdre Wells, believes Wales attracts one million foreign tourists a year, spending an estimated £330m annually. But she said authorities should work harder to improve south to north links, which is currently a four-hour drive.
The Welsh Government said it was investing in the road and rail network.
Sean Taylor, the founder of Zip World in Snowdonia, told UK Inbound’s tourism trade conference in Cardiff that travelling between the south coast cities of Cardiff and Swansea to north Wales was difficult.
Caerphilly Castle, St Fagans Museum and Folly Farm are among the most popular tourist attractions in the south while Snowdon, Conwy Castle and the Italianate village of Portmeirion are well-visited in the north.
The A470, which is largely a single-carriageway road between Cardiff and Llandudno, is the most frequent route for travellers between Wales’ two most populated coastal areas – but Ms Wells wants infrastructure to be improved.
“I think we can be doing more to make these transport links as good as they possibly can be,” she said.
“We do have a default setting on promoting commuter lines but actually the leisure business [does] a huge amount to bolster the sustainability of transport.”
She said that the reliance on east to west road connections makes the entry points particularly important.
“There are some fantastic new routes into Cardiff [airport] and that always helps when you have the ability to fly people into the destination directly,” she added.
The Welsh Government said it was marketing three road trip routes to tourists to showcase Wales.
Tags: UK travel trade body