The Welsh language should not be a barrier, according to one tourism boss. Zip World director, Sean Taylor, made the plea while also saying that the country was in need of a rebrand in terms of tourism.
According to the Llanrwst businessman, Wales should focus more on adventure tourism, food and drink, as well as heritage sites and move away from the perception Wales is "all about sheep, rugby and rain". He also mentioned that the Welsh language should be embraced in the industry.
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This comes after a recent ONS statistic showed that there was a 89% drop in overseas visitors visiting Wales in 2021 compared to 2019. Mr Taylor has five adventure parks all over Wales, including Zip World Tower in Hirwaun, Zip World Llechwedd in Blaenau Ffestiniog and Zip World Penrhyn Quarry in Bethesda. He revealed that he was set to open two more sites in England.
Speaking on BBC Radio Breakfast with Oliver Hides, the businessman shared what he thought Wales should do in terms of rebranding in the tourism sector. "We don't seem to have a discernible brand in comparison to Ireland or Scotland," he explained.
"There's perception that we are all about sheep, rugby and rain. I am the president of my local rugby club and a sponsor of Scarlets as well, so I'm not anti-rugby, I'm just saying in the perception there seems to be that that is what Wales is all about.
"And we've got so much more - we've got an amazing compact landscape, you can be on the beach in the morning and up in Tryfan or Siabod or Pen y Fan in the afternoon.
"We've got the language, which we need to embrace. And I did mention that our English customers, 80% of our customers are English, and they love the language.
"We need to embrace it, we've got the culture, we've got the castles, railways, obviously adventure tourism that I'm involved with and then of course we've got amazing food and drink companies. At the end of it, we're such a friendly nation as well."
When asked how he would go about distilling everything into a "one brand for Wales", he answered: "With Visit Wales, we've done a great job recently even though we were on a very tight budget - they've had a year of adventure, which has brought people in now.
"You mentioned earlier on how the amount of overseas visitors has dropped, it's worth going back to Visit Wales and see where we should rebrand ourselves with those overseas visitors. Having said that, we should never overlook the 85% visitors over the border in England.
"It's a big question. All I was trying to do was point out that there is a perception that we are about sheep and it rains a lot, rugby and mining."
He added: "Not all of the family want to go down a zip line. Some might want to go for heritage or history, go on a train, Portmeirion - fantastic offering in north Wales, you have the Big Pit in south Wales. There's got to be a mixture for all the family."
He also mentioned that he believed that the Welsh language was a "massive asset". He said: "We are not using it enough. It tends to be a negative discussion. I was saying to the MPs the other morning, that we get visitors and we get schools from England coming over and they love it.
"We say 'bore da' and 'pnawn da' and they love it. And by the end of the day, they are speaking a bit of Welsh and they absolutely embrace it. So we should be using that more to our advantage.
"I'm a rugby fan but football [FAW] has done an amazing job with the language, Dafydd Iwan and all the songs. All I'm saying is we need to be even more welcoming with the language, it shouldn't be a barrier."
