News from the South West

This year sees the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth, celebrated with a major festival programme enabling people to discover, or rediscover Wales and Dylan Thomas, to resurrect a passion for literature and inspire all ages to connect more actively with our rich, cultural heritage.    

This high profile festival has been coordinated by Visit Wales and Welsh Government to celebrate this literary milestone to deliver tourism, socio-cultural benefits and to raise Wales’ international profile. 

To date the Festival has attracted considerable media coverage and successfully delivered events in Wales and all over the UK including London, with many more being independently organised under the umbrella of ‘DT100’ across the world. The British Council managed the International ‘Starless and Bible Black’ activities and a pan-Wales Education programme has also been rolled out. 

The centenary year reached its climax with the events held in Wales, London and New York for the actual 100th birthday of Dylan Thomas on 27 October with the President of Ireland formally opening the new Dylan Thomas Exhibition at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea. www.dylanthomas100.org

The shortlist was annouced this week for the National Tourism Awards for Wales, held next year at the Vale Resort, Hensol on 25 March 2015.  There is a wide ranging mix of businesses on the shorlist with South West Wales well represented.  Take a look at the shortlist

Regional Support

The Regional Tourism Engagement Fund has been set up to support destinations within the South West Wales region. Funds have been allocated up until March 2015 but another round of funding will be available from April 2015. All projects are aligned to our Partnership for Growth strategy and will play a part in achieving our target of 10% growth by 2020. 

Philip and Jane work closely with the rest of the Visit Wales team and as your first point of contact are happy to discuss any queries you may have about this fund.

Key projects funded in South West Region

Here's a reminder of some of the current tourism projects in the South West Wales area.

Tourism Investment Support Scheme (TISS) £34,347.00 of TISS funding was awarded to create a new high quality restaurant in Saundersfoot. Coast Restaurant opened in spring 2014 and its already making it's mark with head chef Wil Holland securing 2 AA rosettes for the quality of the food.

Wales Economic Growth Fund The sector has also benefited from access to the Wales Economic Growth Fund (WEGF) which is a wider jobs / growth fund administered via the Economy, Science and Transport department. Successful projects within the South West include: expansion at Mansion House Llansteffan Ltd, upgrade and extensions at Fforest Events Ltd, new web developments at Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire Ltd and new en-suite rooms for Trefloyne Manor receiving investment support of over £470,000.00 creating and safeguarding a significant number of jobs.

Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Following the severe weather over the winter period, Visit Wales administered £2.3 million from the Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF) aimed at repairing tourism infrastructure affected by severe weather at key destinations. Part of the fund also supported proactive PR and targeted marketing to ensure the message that Wales is open for business was communicated. Pembrokeshire were awarded £400,000 for replacing damaged access roads, paths and PR activity and Swansea £80,000 for similar activity.

Digital Tourism projects  The Digital tourism business framework project (DTBF) recently shared its success with an interactive showcase event at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. The project has delivered over 700 ICT diagnostics throughout Wales with a range of diverse, innovative examples of technological projects benefiting the region including: Discover Margam App A free App that provides an interactive guide to the sights, sounds, secrets and surprises of Margam Country Park including an augmented reality feature allowing users to place themselves ‘in the picture’ with stars who have filmed in the park, including Dr Who. Scarlets Rugby Stadium Tour Trail A digital, self guide trail telling the story of rugby in Llanelli. Llanelly House An ambitious and extensive, large scale, digital interpretation project within a major renovation scheme in an historic town centre visitor attraction - bringing to life the story of the House, its owners and community providing an experience that is in line with the rising expectations of visitors in terms of technological experiences and heritage interpretation.

Coastal Communities Fund The Coastal Communities Fund (CCF)  is funded, by the government, from income from the Crown Estate’s marine assets.  Available throughout the UK and managed by the regeneration team in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘BIG Fund’ the main outcome requirement is that 'coastal communities will experience regeneration and economic growth through projects that directly or indirectly create sustainable jobs, and safeguard existing jobs'.  Projects in South West Wales have benefited from both of the first two years of funding.

Partnership for Growth (P4G) Fund

The  P4G Partnership for Growth Fund aims to promote joint working and collaborative projects to help grow the Welsh tourism economy in a sustainable way. Following a successful pilot project carried out by Pembrokeshire County Council creating a ‘digital’  holiday guide for the area the following projects were awarded funded for the financial year ending March 2015:

Creation of a Charter for Sustainable Events in Protected areas of Pembrokeshire. Led by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority the project has been awarded £15,000 of funding to deliver guidance and best practice for the delivery of events and activities on protected areas of the Pembrokeshire coast. 

Gower Beaches: Managing Excellence: Led by the City and County of Swansea £10,000 of funding has been awarded to this project which will improve the quality and sustainability of the Gower beach resource through effective and co-ordinated management with partners and stakeholders.

Coasteering Concordat Pembrokeshire Coast: Led by the National Trust the project will produce a concordat between the National Trust and the Pembrokeshire adventurous activity centre to support high quality and sustainable activities in the long term, the project has been awarded £4,635 of funding.

Environment for Growth (E4G)

The Environment for Growth programme was key in delivering key strategic priorities namely Coastal and Sustainable Tourism in  Wales using the European Development Fund. A number of high profile projects were delivered in South West Wales each successful in their own right a flavour of some of the projects supported is shown below.

Swansea Bay Watersports Centre of Excellence, over £2 million of funding was invested in a number of projects in the Swansea Bay area including the 360 Beach and Watersports Centre on Mumbles Road which has been a great success in improving provision in the area and the improvement of further facilities at Knab Rock and Porthcawl. 

The Pembrokeshire Coastal Centre of Excellence project provided circa  £1.9 million of ERDF funding to projects to improve 5 sites across Pembrokeshire and included enhancements at Tudor Square and developments at Milford Haven Lock, Porthgain and Solva. 

The Cognation Programme £2 million of ERDF funding was provided to the Cognation project via Environment for Growth to create a South Wales Cycling centre of excellence via new mountain biking trails and improved visitor centres was extremely successful and Afan Forest Park in particular has become internationally recognised for the quality of its mountain bilking experience. 

Destination partnerships updates

We have three destination partnerships across South West Wales; 

• Swansea
• Carmarthenshire
• Pembrokeshire 

These partnerships are crucial to developing the destinations within South West Wales. We will be working very closely with all three partnerships and have already allocated funding to them up until March 2015, through our Regional Tourism Engagement Fund (RTEF), to deliver projects on the ground from generating PR for destinations to updating visitor facilities and interpretation.   

Regional Tourism Engagement Fund

The new Regional Tourism Engagement Fund (RTEF) was set up in October and all tourism destinations were invited to submit applications for support until 31 March 2015.  26 applications have been approved totalling £426,000 for whole of Wales.  In the South West Wales region £78,816 awarded to 3 destination  for activities such as: marketing, destination development, skills activities, database management, engagement and partnership support.

How we can help your business

Tourism Investment Support Scheme (TISS) TISS is a grant for new and existing Welsh tourism businesses looking to upgrade the quality of facilities and increase capacity where there is a gap in the market. We offer up to 25% funding for projects, from £5,000 to £500,000.

Visit Wales star grading scheme Stars are a recognised sign of quality and provide reassurance to guests that you’ve been fully inspected before they check in.  We know for a fact that guests consider star quality grading important when choosing somewhere to stay.  Apply online now.

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