Visitors love Mid Wales - official

 

The Wales Visitor Survey, which is published every two years, revealed that visitors from the UK rated Wales’ quality of the natural environment at 9.33 out of 10, while tourists from overseas gave the country a score of 9.22.

 

Mid Wales came out top within Wales for its natural environment, overall as a place to visit, the cleanliness of the general environment, visitor information during a trip, the standard of tourist signposting and overall value for money.

 

The news has delighted tourism chiefs who are preparing for a busy spring and summer season.

 

Val Hawkins, from Mid Wales Tourism, said the positive survey results were good news for the region’s tourism businesses but also highlighted the need to attract more new visitors.

 

More than 1,000 visitors to the region were interviewed and Mid Wales had the highest overall satisfaction score of 8.98 out of 10. Of those interviewed, 62 per cent had no children in the household, 31 per cent were families and seven per cent were young independents under the age of 35 with no children.

 

Nineteen per cent of those interviewed in Mid Wales were staying in campsites, 18 per cent were in self catering accommodation, 10 per cent owned a caravan holiday home and six per cent stayed in a mid to large hotel.

 

Nearly two thirds of visitors to Mid Wales used leaflets at attractions and accommodation as a source of information during their visit, 45 per cent used tourist information centres, 19 per cent used websites and 18 per cent didn’t source any information.

 

Sixty per cent had knowledge of the region before visiting, nearly half sourced information from a website and a third sought advice from friends or relatives.

 

Half the visitors had access to the Internet via a mobile phone or handheld device but only 27 per cent of them used it during their trip.

 

The survey also revealed that three quarters of the interviewed tourists were repeat visitors, 15 per cent were lapsed visitors and only 12 per cent were visiting for the first time.

 

“We are really pleased with the survey results, which show the strength of what we have to offer right across the board in Mid Wales,” said Mrs Hawkins. “The visitor satisfaction results show that visitors are very happy and our repeat business is strong, but we need to work harder to attract new visitors.

 

“There is clearly a need to continue to raise awareness of the region as an interesting place to visit. Repeat visitors become ambassadors for the region by telling their friends and family about Mid Wales.”

 

Mid Wales Tourism is an independent, not for profit organisation, which represents more than 500 businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd.