A week of change in tourism in Wales

Been a week of change.  Towards the end of one tourism contract, starting another and smack bang in the middle of a few more. It’s been a week of presenting  too. One to the Mid Wales Tourism Partnership updating them on our progress with the Digital Tourism Marketing Framework and one yesterday in Bridgend chairing a panel discussion on the future of heritage interpretation in Wales. Both great.  It’s nice to be involved in a tourism contract in Mid Wales, after all, it’s where I’m from, based, where I play and now work.

I suppose a key learning has been how difficult it is for everyone to try to keep up with the curve in digital marketing and why we should accept this, but destinations should possibly provide a resource or a hub for project concepting, brief designing and idea generation.    In other words, there are people out there who are ahead of the curve, who live and breathe digital applications 24/7 and are at the cutting edge.  A kind of a sounding board or surgery, but could this be provided by philanthropists wishing to give something back to a place they love?

This model seems to work well at national level with the Wales Digital Tourism Steering Group so maybe this is worth looking at in other destinations too. If not, it costs, but in Wales at least, the recent tender put out by Visit Wales should be applauded as they are seeking to contract a company to undertake horizon scanning in digital tourism and for this to be shared with everyone involved. Great.

There’s been a bit of a buzz for me around Google + this week and how businesses should explore this and as ever Augmented Reality in tourism continues to jump all over me everyday. Starting to form a project in Bridgend based on Augmented Reality, and its amazing how the acceptance of new technology amongst traditional heritage groups has gathered pace and energy in the area.  This could be good, and one to keep an eye on for sure.

Finally, started a new contract working with the Valleys Regional Park in South Wales and this is an exciting one, really looking forward to it. Again, it’s where I’m from as Ystradgynlais though just in Mid Wales is of course, smack bang in Swansea Valley too.  The emergence of the Valleys as a destination has progressed massively over the last couple of years with a campaign aimed at community ownership and pride first, but phase 2 is now about visitors, tourism development and perception changing.  Challenging, interesting and for me, self motivating.    http://www.thevalleys.co.uk

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