Royal plan hailed as part of £50m vote of tourism confidence

* An artist's impression showing how the riverside elevation of the Royal Hotel. could look.

The £6.5 million plan to redevelop the iconic Royal Hotel in Llangollen has been held up an an example of a £50m vote of confidence  in the North Wales tourism and hospitality business.

It was quoted by North Wales Tourism chief executive Jim Jones as he launched the search for entries in this year's Go North Wales Awards to be staged at Venue Cymru in Llandudno on Thursday, November 24.  

The Oscars-style ceremony will be hosted by radio and TV presenter Sian Lloyd.

According to Mr Jones, times are still tough for the sector but there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.

People were tightening their belts because of inflation and the cost of living crisis so the number of staycation visitors was down.

While the start of the summer season had been “fairly busy”, bookings for August, September and October were unusually slow in contrast to last  year when it had been extremely busy.

On the plus-side there was optimism that the tourism and hospitality industry in North Wales would eventually return to and then exceed pre-pandemic levels when it was attracting record number of visitors and annually pumping £3.6 billion into the region’s economy.

Mr Jones said: “There are challenges at the moment so it’s great to have the opportunity to celebrate as well by staging the Go North Wales Awards which will showcase the best we have to offer.

“Importantly, it is also a chance to recognise all the work, the sacrifices and the investment that’s been put into the tourism sector.

“The reasons why North Wales is such an attractive destination for visitors are still there.

“We can therefore be optimistic that tourism and hospitality is well place to lead the region on the road to economic recovery.”

“There are lots of positive things happening so we do have reasons to be cheerful.

“My conservative estimate is that at least £50 million is being invested in the region by key tourism and hospitality operators.

“Zip World are launching have launched Underground Golf at Llechwedd in Blaenau Ffestiniog while another of our major success stories, Adventure Parc Snowdonia, in the Conwy Valley is investing £5 million to make it an all-year-round destination, particularly for business events, conferences and team-building courses.

“The Belmont and the Queen’s hotels in Llandudno have been bought up by a company called Everbrite and they’re investing in them.

“Meanwhile, £6.5 million plans to redevelop the iconic Royal Hotel in Llangollen have been given the go-ahead.

“When you add it all up, that’s a lot of investment and a really positive indicator for the future. It’s essentially a massive vote of confidence in North Wales.

“We always said it’d take two to three years to get back to where we were.

“For obvious reasons, we have been relying on the domestic market in recent times but now we have the international market that is just starting to open up

“It’s our job is to make sure that we’re out there promoting our investments and our assets that we have in North Wales and shouting form the rooftops.

“We are already re-establishing our links with the Asian market and our relationship with Japan is particularly strong and we’re building on the twinning of Conwy and Himeji castles a few years back.

“We have now forged similar links between Llandudno and the Swiss skiing resort of Champéry.

“All these things are helping us raise our profile internationally but we’ve got to do more and promote ourselves as the Adventure Capital of Europe.

“When you think about it, we have an incredible amount to offer visitors, right across North Wales.

“Hopefully, with support from the likes of Welsh Government, we can re-establish ourselves as a confident region and bring people into North Wales to come to stay and spend their money.

“That’s why events like the Go North Wales Awards are so incredibly important because it’s a chance to shout about the best of the best.

“We are hugely grateful of all our sponsors because quite simply the awards could not happen without their support.”

The window for submissions in 16 categories of the Go North Wales Awards is open until Monday, October 10, and more details can be found at www.gonorthwalestourismawards.website

Categories up for grabs are:

Go Hotel Award 2022

Go B&B / Inn Award 2022

Go Self Catering Award 2022

Go Holiday Park Award 2022

Go Caravan, Camping or Glamping Award 2022

Go Attraction Award 2022

Go Activity Award 2022

Go Best Event Award 2022

Go Food and Drink Award 2022

Go Tourism Supplier Award 2022

Go Skills Award 2022

Go Responsible and Sustainable Green Award 2022

Go Pet Friendly Award 2022

Go Young Person Award 2022

Go Best Newcomer Award 2022

Go North Wales Judges Award 2022