Carmarthenshire’s tourism booming

TOURIST numbers to Carmarthenshire continue to rise with latest figures showing an increase of 5.9per cent more visitors to the county in 2014 over the previous year with a total of 3.1 million tourists.

This added more than a third of a billion pounds (£342.77-million) to the local economy, up 2.2per cent on 2013 making it one of the main industries.

Day trippers were up 7.4 per cent in 2014 to more than 2.2 million and overnight tourists up 2.5 percent

Carmarthenshire’s executive board member for regeneration and tourism, Cllr Meryl Gravell, said: “These figures are clear evidence of the hard work put in by the Council’s marketing and tourism team and that the teamwork approach from all public and private partners in our beautiful county is paying off.

“It’s a very competitive market both within the UK and abroad but we in Carmarthenshire have a quality destination and the tourism industry is delivering a first class product.

“There are 80-miles of golden coastline with two spectacularly long and famous beaches, nine castles and glorious gardens bringing visitors in their thousands and making Carmarthenshire one of the largest visitor destinations in Wales.

“Top attractions such as the Millennium Coastal Park and Pembrey Country Park, Cefn Sidan and Pendine beaches, the Botanical and Aberglasney gardens and Carreg Cenen and Kidwelly castles, draw visitors from Europe, the USA and all parts of the UK.

“Then we have the award winning local businesses like Cwmcrwth Farm and holiday cottages & Gateway Holiday Park providing great family holiday opportunities as well as national hotel chains investing in Llanelli and Cross Hands. The County council is incredibly joined up in its role in tourism and how it links to future inward investment and we also get first class support from the Welsh Government in infrastructure and business growth grants.

The STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) report which is used throughout the UK tourism industry to gather data, shows the 2014 value of tourism in Carmarthenshire adding more than a third of a billion pounds to the local economy making it one of the county’s top three industries.

It demonstrates consistent growth in the county when compared to 1999 tourism economic value figure of £141 million.

With more than 5,600 people employed in tourism and many more indirectly employed, Carmarthenshire is now one of the largest visited areas in Wales.

Chief executive of Carmarthenshire Tourism Association, Nia Ball, said: “The county’s growing success as a tourist destination is down to the increasing quality and variety of businesses offering fantastic experiences.

“Tourism businesses throughout the county are being innovative and adapting in order to make the most of the current economic conditions with visitors being more conscious than ever before of getting good value for their booking.

“It is so positive to see that tourism in Carmarthenshire continues to grow, emphasising how important it is for businesses to work with the county council to make the ‘Discover Carmarthenshire’ brand stronger than ever.

“The Carmarthenshire Tourism Awards, which are now open for entries and nominations, are held to recognise and reward those businesses that have been showing tremendous entrepreneurial enterprise.”

Carmarthenshire marketing and tourism manager, Huw Parsons, said: “It is vital that all of us involved in tourism in the county continue to work together to build on this success into the future.

“Critical to this is the recently developed and launched Destination Management Plan which outlines the key areas of focus to drive the development of Carmarthenshire’s visitor economy and further boost the industry.

“The growing success really is down to the increasing quality and variety of businesses offering fantastic experiences to visitors here – and the Carmarthenshire Tourism Awards – which are held to recognise and reward those businesses.”

• The numbers of people visiting Carmarthenshire show no signs of slowing down. Visitors to Pembrey Country Park and Cefn Sidan Beach to July in 2013-14 were 395,000 and are have already peaked to 440,000 for the same period in 2014-15.