The Welsh Government has this week announced a new tourism strategy for Wales, which aims to grow the sector by ten per cent over the next seven years.

The new strategy, which was devised by Visit Wales’ new chief executive of tourism and marketing Manon Williams, concentrates on further developing Wales’ high quality, iconic products and events to enhance the country’s reputation.

As part of its development, Visit Wales sought the views of 1,000 individuals, operators and businesses across Wales, from all sectors of the industry, on the future of tourism to Wales.

The five key areas of focus have been highlighted as:

• Promoting the brand.
• Product development.
• People development.
• Profitable performance.
• Place building.

There will also be an emphasis on more luxury and branded hotels, wellbeing facilities, heritage hotels using historic and distinctive buildings, year-round attractions, activities, cultural experiences and innovative and unusual products.

Although the British domestic market remains the primary area for tourism growth and promotion, overseas markets such as Ireland, USA and Germany are also key to the new vision.

Williams commented: “This strategy is the beginning of a new direction for tourism in Wales that will support growth in the sector during the coming years.

“We want to work more closely with partners in Wales and the travel trade to develop our offering and ultimately increase visitor spend to Wales.”

Take a look at the full report here.