Over £400m a year – that’s how much tourism is now worth to Swansea Bay

Tourism’s value to the Swansea Bay economy has topped the £400 million a year mark for the very first time.

New figures for 2015 show tourists spent £401.68 million throughout the year in Swansea Bay – that’s a 1.8% increase from 2014.

The STEAM figures (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Model) prepared for Swansea Council also show visitor numbers increased by 2.1% to 4.56 million – that’s about the equivalent of the entire population of New Zealand, whose star outside-half Dan Carter sung Swansea Bay’s praises on social media during last year’s Rugby World Cup.

Other highlights include jobs supported by tourism, which increased by 3.2% to 5,718.

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development and Regeneration, said: “This is the first time that tourism has ever been worth more than £400 million a year to the Swansea Bay economy. This is important because it demonstrates the economic value of a sector that also supports over 5,700 jobs.

“The successful results are a reflection of the collective and collaborative way that the sector works locally – including the private, public and third sectors. While we review our destination management plan, which has helped guide investment and development over the past three years, we will continue to work more closely than ever alongside our tourism businesses and other tourism organisations to keep on improving the quality and attractiveness of Swansea Bay as a visitor destination.

“These hugely encouraging figures represent a great return from the creative and innovative marketing campaigns we have delivered to promote the destination to key markets in the UK and overseas. And with the tourism sector attracting more visitors than ever before, the investment made by local businesses is resulting in these visitors spending more money in Swansea Bay.

“Events and attractions available all year also means tourism has now become a year-round sector, which helps create and sustain thousands of local jobs and puts Swansea Bay well on the way to becoming a world class visitor destination. This will be further reinforced by our regeneration plans for the city centre.

“Visitor expectations are also increasing, so the way they search, book and review is closely monitored to make sure we remain as competitive as other leading UK destinations. The challenge now is to maintain this momentum into the peak summer season of 2016 and beyond. A great deal of partnership working is happening from Fabian Way to Rhossili and from Mawr to the Marina to help realise our goals.”

Leading the council’s destination management marketing are its digital marketing campaigns, with figures showing a 47% increase in the number of unique visits to the official Visit Swansea Bay destination website in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same period last year. The website also attracted more than 400,000 page views in the same timeframe, beating last year’s figure by 18%.

Swansea Council’s tourism team has already attracted 12 media visits to Swansea Bay from journalists, bloggers and vloggers so far this year, generating an equivalent public relations value of almost £1m worth of coverage. Features have appeared in The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine and One Magazine, along with a number of blogs, including That Adventurer and Mr and Mrs T Plus Three.

Digital and static campaign adverts promoting Swansea Bay were also placed at key transport and shopping locations in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham from September 2015 to the end of March this year, with a reach of about 270 million people.

Four new Swansea Bay adventure videos have also been produced, tying in with the Visit Wales Year of Adventure campaign. They’ve now been watched more than 50,000 times across the world since being launched at the end of January.

Cllr Francis-Davies said: “These are just some examples of the innovative work our tourism team has been doing to promote Swansea Bay as creatively and innovatively as possible, both online and offline.

“If the early indications remain as positive throughout the year, when the city welcomes pop icons like Lionel Ritchie, Noel Gallagher and the Manic Street Preachers, then I’m hopeful we’ll be in a position to report record-breaking figures for 2016 as well.”