Help pledged for local tourism

An independent organisation representing around 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Mid Wales has pledged to work closely with local tourism networks during 2015.

Chief executive Val Hawkins made the pledge at MWT’s annual meeting, held at Powis Castle, where she and chairman, Anne Lloyd-Jones reported on a year of challenges and exciting digital marketing developments.

Mrs Hawkins said she was keen to support tourism business networks and planned to attend more meetings of local groups to promote the work of MWT and to receive feedback from businesses.

“Throughout the past year, we have focused on positioning MWT to enable the organisation to meet future challenges and opportunities, supporting our members and working together with other tourism organisations to develop the tourism economy in Mid Wales and beyond,” she said.

“MWT has an excellent track record, consistently delivering marketing and specialist industry support, providing an independent voice for the business community and offering impartial business advice and support via membership service delivery.”

She said it had been a challenging year, which had seen reorganisation of the company to address the impact of external factors affecting MWT and the tourism sector generally. These factors included an anticipated cut in public sector funding, development of digital marketing and social media and Visit Wales’ regional re-structuring and emphasis on local area partnerships.

MWT provides a range of membership services and benefits, an independent voice for the tourism business sector and continued investment in the latest digital marketing technology, to help members gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. 

Mrs Hawkins thanked her predecessor David Peate for having the vision to be one of the first regions of the UK to introduce a destination management system. MWT had continued to develop the technology in partnership with NVG.

 Online projects undertaken during the year included Show Me Wales, a new ‘pan-Wales’ website, new Wales Trails app, a range of itineraries featuring car-free ideas and dynamic widgets, enabling businesses to make use of our extensive database information on their own websites.

 MWT had also introduced new destination areas during 2014 and she was hopeful that this work would bear fruit during 2015 as more digital marketing channels came on line.

 Mrs Lloyd-Jones said: “As a business-led organisation, we are committed to delivering activities which support the growth and development of a strong and sustainable tourism industry that contributes £6.9 billion to Wales GDP and supports 206,000 jobs.

 “Business re-structuring has been undertaken to reflect changes in the wider tourism sector that will ensure MWT is well placed to support members and the wider tourism business community in future years.”