The Importance of Destination Marketing (Mid Wales)

We all know that Mid Wales is often the lesser known region of Wales. The days are long gone when there were big budgets to spend on overseas marketing, brochures, trade shows etc 

Tourism is not just accommodation/activity/attraction businesses. Tourism is also your cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and organisations that benefit from the increased footfall tourism brings - A thriving visitor economy means a place where people want to visit, but it also helps to create a place where people want to live and work...It’s about inward investment, skilled jobs, better infrastructure and creating an environment where the next generation have an opportunity to prosper in.

• Over 11% of all employment in Mid Wales is in the tourism sector, the highest proportion of any region in Wales.
• Visitors spend over £689 Million in Mid Wales: https://gov.wales/docs/caecd/research/2017/170308-regional-tourism-profiles-2014-mid-wales-en.pdf

MWT is the only organisation that markets Mid Wales as a complete destination, and our website www.visitmidwales.co.uk generates between 260k - 1.1million page views each month

... but we have a problem, as a ‘Not For Profit’ organisation with no central/public funding this activity is only possible through the support of the business community, and more and more we're finding businesses not truly understanding the importance of this role.

We often hear from accommodation providers – “I get all my bookings through booking.com” - that's great, but the large OTA's (booking.com, Laterooms, Expedia etc) only work when visitors know where they want to visit. They don't work if visitors have never heard of your town/village/region, nor do they work if there is seemingly nothing to do when they get there.

MWT publishes over a thousand pages of destination information, including walking routes, scenic places, forests, towns/villages, events, travel information etc as well as over 570 individual business pages from businesses who support MWT..Showcasing what is great about our region and providing visitors with compelling reasons to choose Mid Wales as their next holiday destination.

Support for our sector is diminishing, we have already lost many of our Tourist Information Centres and many of our area brochures …without businesses pulling together and helping to support the destination marketing we can expect to see the visitor numbers decrease...it’s that simple..

To find out how you can help support your tourism industry and your local community, please see our Mid Wales section for more information or contact our team on 01654 702653

Many Thanks