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Last week, Tourism Minister, Lord Elis-Thomas visited north Wales where tourism businesses are gearing up for the Easter holidays

Surf Snowdonia opened as the world’s first inland surfing lagoon during 2015 – and are looking forward to an exciting season with many new events at the attraction during 2018.  

The first waves of the season will start to roll on Saturday March 24 – this will also be the date for Surf Snowdonia’s spectacular Waves Mud and Mountains event, a muddy obstacle course race taking place in and around the Surf Snowdonia site.  This will be the first of many events – followed by ‘The Great Outdoors Weekend’ – a big celebration of north Wales adventure on 7 April.

During his visit, the Minister had an opportunity to see the world class facilities and discuss future ambitions with Managing Director, Andy Ainscough, managing director at Surf Snowdonia said: 

"It was a pleasure to show the minister around and to discuss our plans for 2018. Going on the rate of bookings we have had for activities and accommodation already, North Wales tourism looks set for another bumper year. We're proud to be part of what is a vibrant, creative and important economic sector for this region."

The Minister also visited Venue Cymru, Llandudno where work will shortly begin on a project to refresh Venue Cymru’s offer as a business events venue - which has secured almost £1 million of EU funding under the Tourism Attractor Destination project. A programme of reconfiguration of the current building will allow for better use of the existing space to accommodate the varied line-up of shows and events; with the improved quality of the offer attracting more visitors to North Wales and Venue Cymru, helping to extend the visitor season.

Today in north east Wales, the Minister had the opportunity to launch a new project by the Clwydian Range Tourism Group which has been funded by Visit Wales’ Tourism Product Innovation Fund.  MythFest is a 3-hour magical, outdoor adventure, immersing families in storytelling, music and natural crafts with local mythological creatures from the wild waters of North East Wales. It will take place at four locations across North East Wales this summer.  Today’s launch was to raise awareness of the series of events among local tourism businesses and to maximise benefits from these events for the local economy. 

Tourism Minister, Lord Elis-Thomas, said:

“Following the recent spell of bad weather I’m delighted to see that tourism businesses are gearing up for a busy Easter and have innovative and exciting plans in store for Wales’ Year of the Sea.

“Visit Wales’s international campaign for the Spring is also underway: with a presence at global events such as ITB Berlin; high-profile marketing for the Year of the Sea in the UK, Ireland and Germany including television adverts starting Hollywood star Luke Evans; and partnership campaigns with major travel and tourism brands. This is all encouraging customers to choose Wales for their next short break or holiday with creative, engaging images and stories from all parts of the country. In fact, the quality of our work is recognised across the UK – Visit Wales recently won second and third place awards at the Travel Marketing Awards, going head to head with the best in the business.”

“Last week’s National Tourism Awards was a showcase of the quality and variety of experiences which can be had here in Wales – and also showed the commitment and professionalism of our vibrant tourism sector in delivering these experiences and welcoming our visitors to Wales. Of course, we can’t rest on our laurels – and it’s good to see our attractions and businesses looking at opportunities to develop and grow their businesses to meet customer expectations in this globally competitive industry.”