Visit Wales has announced the destination’s strategy for its annual marketing theme, ‘Wales by Trails’. The biennial theme, which is adopted by Meet In Wales, has in the past looked at the Year of Adventure, Year of the Sea, and Year of Discovery, all of which have allowed the destination to underline specialist knowledge and products that support business events.
The themes support Meet In Wales’s wider strategic aim of ‘spread, spend and seasonality’ by presenting the destination as welcoming, inclusive, and open for business events. While the campaign is built around encouraging visitors to be a ‘trail taker’ and curate their own epic trails in Wales, Meet In Wales is using it as an opportunity to underline the many incentive travel extensions open to events coming to the destination
The destination is also using the campaign as a means to raise the profile of some of the trailblazing activities that typifies Wales. These include a trail adventure between surf Snowdonia at Adventure Parc Snowonia, zip lining at Zip World at Penrhyn Quarry, or a food and wine experience at Dylan’s Restaurant at Llandudno. The trail theme encourages more delegates to take in the outdoors while experiencing the vast greenery and geography the destination is recognised for.
Equally, Meet in Wales is encouraging the destination’s meetings and events community to collaborate in creating bespoke ‘delegate trails’, that enable them to be their own ‘storyteller’ and find their own bespoke Wales experience, or by working as groups as part of an extension or exercise built into the event itinerary.
Increasingly delegates are staying on in destinations post-event, and organisers are likewise keen to give them a taste of the locality of the places they visit. Wales by Trails gives visitors the opportunity to do so, by linking in with the promotion and activity across Wales created by the campaign.
As well as Wales’ famous, iconic trails, such as the Wales Coast Path, the theme encourages visitors to curate their own trips, which could include its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, particularly its newest site – the slate landscape in north west Wales; mountain bike centres; dark sky reserves; foodie itineraries; events; castles and much more.
“We’re an outdoors destination as well as an indoors one, and we really want to encourage visitors to build into their agendas the chance to take in the scenery of Wales,” comments Heledd Williams, Head of Business Events, Meet In Wales. “For us, encouraging a sense of place for Wales is key. One that encompasses culture, tradition, language, food & drink, and the people, all contributing to a feeling of authentic ‘Wales’ into their experiences. More and more organisers want to build in incentive activities into their meetings, so they can get out there and explore, see touch and really experience the places they visit, Wales by Trails is the perfect way of doing so.”
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
