The next item on our agenda this afternoon is the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure on the Year of Legends—Ken Skates.

North Wales was recently named one of the world’s best regions by Lonely Planet. It’s apt and testimony to Visit Wales’s work that this comes at the end of the Year of Adventure, with the publication stating that North Wales had earned its place due to the transformation that the region has undergone over the last few years. World-first adventure attractions, a glorious coastal path, some of best mountain biking in the UK: the reinvention has of course been driven by visionaries and entrepreneurs, but we have played our role too with Welsh Government leadership, funding and outstanding marketing campaigns, the climax of which has been an epic 2016.

Highlights of an action-packed 12 months include the ‘Treasures’ exhibition at National Museum Wales, a ‘Great Weekend of Adventure’ in April, Cadw’s ‘Historic Adventures’ summer, two Red Bull events and the Roald Dahl ‘City of the Unexpected’ extravaganza in Cardiff. And, of course, Wales’s epic footballing adventure in France earlier this year became an opportunity to promote Wales to new audiences across Europe, with an exhibition in Paris and our first ever television campaign in the German market during the week of the semi-finals. The same Visit Wales advert had already been shown on television and in cinemas here in the UK and Ireland, as well as in cinemas in England and Germany as part of an integrated campaign, which also featured print and digital marketing, as well as an adventure roadshow, co-funded with the GREAT campaign, visiting Munich, Cologne, Paris and Amsterdam.

The ‘EPIC’ installation summer project was designed to generate social media coverage for Wales’s peak season, drawing in over 8,000 visitors to its Rhossili site alone and boosting Visit Wales’s social following to over 900,000 people. The campaign more broadly has helped to generate record consumer response levels, to attract over 4.8 million visitors to Visit Wales websites in 12 months, and to drive an increase in tour operator business. I’m especially proud of the impact that the year seems to have had here in Wales. Not only has the industry fully backed the initiative, with one group of businesses even taking out their own adverts in Euston station, but our adventure ambassadors have energised the public, and I’d like to thank them wholeheartedly for their inspiration and perspiration throughout. The Year of Adventure has been the subject of prime-time television programmes and extensive media coverage in Wales, and it seems to me that it’s no coincidence that day visitor numbers are especially strong this year. In fact, the increase of over 40 per cent in average expenditure from day visitors is just one of a range of positive indicators that suggest that it may be another bumper year for tourism, with a growth of 15 per cent in international tourism visits during the first six months of 2016 and occupancy levels maintained or increased across most sectors. No wonder some 85 per cent of businesses told us that they are confident about this year. All of this activity continues to provide significant economic growth and employment opportunities in communities around Wales.

And the adventure doesn’t end here; the legacy continues with new world-class adventure openings early next year, further investment in world-first adventure products planned and ongoing adventure marketing, even as we add a new layer to our narrative: legends. Our vision as we look ahead to the Year of Legends 2017 is to build on the success of the Year of Adventure with a new and equally competitive dimension to our story. Because 2017 is about bringing our culture and heritage to the centre of our national brand. It certainly isn’t about looking backwards: the Year of Legends is about bringing the past to life as never before, with cutting-edge innovation. It’s about creating and celebrating new Welsh legends, modern-day personalities, products and events that are made in Wales, or enriched by coming here.

Our cultural assets will be injected with just as much creativity as we have seen igniting the adventure sector, with activities that are unmistakably Wales, and internationally outstanding. This ambition is crucial because 2016 wasn’t just about adventure, it was also the year of the EU referendum, changing the context for the Year of Legends completely, making it ever more important to internationalise the quality of our product offer with world-class innovation and to sell Wales to the world with renewed energy. Indeed, this week, I have also launched a new approach to promoting Wales for business—international in scope, but telling local stories. The vision is a joined-up, integrated brand with global appeal rooted in a distinctive sense of place, and the Year of Legends is tourism's contribution to this bold approach.

The additional budget of £5 million secured for Visit Wales means that, from a tourism perspective, we will respond to this challenge with funding for international-quality and brand-defining experiences and events. Details of next year’s partnership funds will be released shortly. It also enables us to significantly boost our domestic and international marketing efforts with strengthened campaigns in the UK, Germany, key European cities and the United States. A project to underpin this work by transforming Wales’s digital gateway platforms and content capabilities is already under way.

‘Legends’ is the perfect theme for this work. We know that culture and heritage are strong attractors for international audiences, but the theme also offers the deep authenticity that today’s domestic markets seek out. Local meets global; old infused with new. Our programme aims to bring these aspects together in exciting ways. We will feature an unprecedented calendar of creative activities in Wales’s castles—more open-door events, a thrilling medieval tournament in Conwy, and the unveiling of two major new artworks of international repute. We will celebrate a land of story-telling, working with VisitBritain to mark the release of a new film about King Arthur, and recognising global talent inspired by Wales, from Dahl to Dylan Thomas to Tolkien, with tours and with trails.

A rich and inspiring programme of events, exhibitions and collections delivered by our major cultural partners, including Amgueddfa Cymru and the National Library of Wales, will feature legendary works and themes. In June, we welcome the UEFA Champions League final to Cardiff, the biggest sporting occasion in the world next year. Expect multilingual digital campaigns, experiential installations and global media coverage, as we set the scene for another legendary sporting event. Cricketing’s champions trophy and golf’s senior open will add to the package of sports events.

The summer will also see us create and celebrate legendary festivals and events, and launch a glamping pop-up hotel project, which is already attracting high-profile media attention. We will highlight our food and drink heroes in September, before unveiling new legendary branded touring routes across our country, aimed at international markets, in the autumn.

The major, multichannel, multimarket campaign has already started at last week’s World Travel Market, where it was clear that Wales’s distinct and diverse cultural offer has real potential, combined with adventure, to take our brand and performance to a new level, with the aim, of course, of getting the whole of Wales onto shortlists like that of the Lonely Planet in the future, as well as growing our economy. But also, and most importantly, there is also a long-term vision to take pride in and to strengthen and enhance the very fabric of the culture and communities we serve to promote in the first place, providing a firm basis for future legends to emerge.

Wales really is a country of legends, but, far too often, they are overlooked. I’ve mentioned in here a couple of times Billy Boston, the Tiger bay legend, but nothing’s been done about it. Hopefully that can change. Before each sporting international, we will sing ‘Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri’, and it's clear that Wales is a land of poets, singers and famous people of renown—that's the English translation. But when you walk around our capital city, you're more likely to see streets named after Normans who conquered us rather than the Welsh people who tried to set us free. If you head out on 25 January, Santes Dwynwen, if you’re all going out, you're more likely to come across haggis and Burns Night than Santes Dwynwen, our Welsh patron saint of friendship and love. And, you know, it's the same on St David's Day, because I remember, in 2011, we created on Cardiff council the St David’s Day Festival, and we couldn't get Brains, of all people, to support the festival, but yet they supported St Patrick's Day—odd.

So, you know, while selling Wales and our culture abroad is to be celebrated, we need to sell, also, our culture to our own people in Wales. Who knows about Sycharth, the court of Owain Glyndŵr and the centre of cultural life back then? It could be a great tourist attraction, but it's a vacant hill with a battered old sign barely stating its significance. For me, that sums up Wales. You know, how many people here know of Dafydd ap Gwilym? It took an American to tell me who he was some years back—a great, internationally renowned writer in the fourteenth century; one of Europe's greatest writers. Yet everybody knows who Shakespeare was. Now, we have all these cultural icons unused.

The first-ever rail passenger journey took place from Merthyr ironworks to Abercynon in 1804, and what's there now? Just a path and a battered, again, dirty old sign and a plaque. In most countries in the world, you'd have a themed train ride up there and some kind of visitor centre celebrating the history of Wales and the industrial revolution. We have a country and culture that we're proud of, but we need to sell it. And if we sold it, people would buy it. The First Minister takes trips to America, but I don't see many results, because Hollywood has fallen in love with Ireland and with Scotland, with major films celebrating their legends, but, you know, as their Celtic cousin, we remain unknown. Even our rugby legend, Gareth Thomas, who inspired so many people when he came out, well, in the film about him, the character’s Irish, because they felt that being Welsh wasn't internationally known enough to justify a character.

I welcome the film initiative about King Arthur—great, great. But what about a film about the father of Welsh democracy in Owain Glyndŵr? Global star Matthew Rees has already announced that he’s determined to make the Welsh equivalent of ‘Braveheart’. Now, would the Welsh Government support such a project? Minister, why not host an event, maybe on St David's Day in 2017, and invite the brightest and the best scriptwriters and actors to Cardiff, to Wales, to talk about taking this project forward? Because I think a film about Owain Glyndŵr could do for Wales exactly what ‘Braveheart’ did for Scotland. And in the book ‘Tourism in Scotland’, it showed that, in 1997, 39 per cent of visitors to Stirling said that ‘Braveheart’ had influenced their decision, and 19 per cent said it was the reason for visiting. So, you know, there's a lot of good stuff in there, and I hope the campaign is a success and it brings much-needed jobs to Wales, because Wales does need to celebrate its legends, so I welcome your initiative. But I think it's important as well not to do it just for one year; it's time to put pride back into Wales from this day forward and every day after this, and it's time to throw off the stifling cloak of colonialism. Diolch.

I think I did detect a question there. It is a statement, and it should be questions to the Minister—[Interruption.] No, that’s okay. Yes, I think I detected a couple there, so perhaps you’d like to answer those, Minister.

Yes, there were a number of points regarding local heroes, community heroes and national legends that I think the Member raised, first of all with regard to Billy Boston. This is a matter that the Member has raised in the past, and I’d be very pleased to receive any interest from any local groups concerning an application for resource to help celebrate this particular legend. We do have, as I outlined during questions last week, a number of funding streams, including the regional tourism innovation fund, that can assist with this sort of development, and I’ll be more than happy to have officials discuss that fund and other potential avenues for support with any community groups that are looking at any events or any installations to celebrate Billy Boston during 2017, or indeed in future years.

The Member mentioned Cardiff. In terms of Cardiff and, in particular Cardiff Bay, or Tiger bay, as it was known until recent years, there is a world-class musical in development that will tell the story of Tiger bay’s industrial heritage with the aim of elevating it onto the world stage. Discussions are also under way to develop a highly innovative virtual reality product offer for Cardiff Bay that will further immerse visitors in Wales’s industrial heritage story and deliver what I think will be a truly multidimensional product.

I think it’s also important that we recognise that, next year, we will see the completion of one of the biggest heritage renovation projects anywhere in the country, with work due to be completed on the listed Coal Exchange here in Cardiff Bay. I’m in no doubt that, when that particular building opens as a hotel and as a local museum, it will attract attention from around the world, not least because many legends of music and film who are still alive performed at the Coal Exchange before it was closed. So, we are hoping that they will join us in celebrating the reopening of this important building.

But industrial heritage is with us right across Wales, and I know, over the past few months, many Members have raised in the Chamber and in writing their hopes for more to be done in promoting our rich industrial heritage. Indeed, it’s very important to the tourism offer in my own constituency, not just with heritage railways, but with former steel and coal sites attracting many visitors. I’m keen that in the Year of Legends we celebrate industrial heritage more than ever before.

In terms of selling Wales to America, well, our creative industries are performing better than anywhere else in the UK bar London, attracting significant investments to Wales and enabling Wales to be captured on the big screen. I think that the film trail that’s being put together by Wales Screen captures many of the key locations for significant movies, although it is with regret still that we did not see ‘Spectre’ filmed in this Chamber, because I think that would have added an incredible amount of interest to the National Assembly.

But the Member is right—this has to be multi-year. We have to keep the product fresh. We have to ensure that pride is renewed year after year after year, and that’s why I’m determined to make sure that thematic years continue. After 2017 and the Year of Legends we will move into 2018, the Year of the Sea. Years after that are yet to be determined, but I think that the success of the Year of Adventure means that we can go forward with the entire sector alongside us.

I’d like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement this afternoon. I do think it is fantastic that Lonely Planet recently announced that north Wales is one of the top four places in the world to visit. I have no doubt that most the best places in north Wales were of course in the Vale of Clwyd, Deputy Presiding Officer.

You’re not getting any extra time. [Laughter.]

I’ll give it a try in any case. I do suspect that Montgomeryshire is of course No. 1 as well. I’d like to think that that is the case.

But I would like to join the Cabinet Secretary in welcoming the reported 25 per cent increase in the number of visitors to Wales, and the increase in the associated visitor spend as well, which now stands £3.5 billion. I’m sure that the success can partly be attributed to the Year of Adventure.

The Cabinet Secretary referred to the 15 per cent increase in overseas visitors to Wales, and this shows that Wales has an incredible potential as a global tourism destination. Of course, so much can be done to attract overseas visitors by working with Cardiff Airport, so I’m interested there with regard to that, because I think Cardiff Airport offers routes very much geared to taking people out of Wales, but I’m keen, of course, that Cardiff Airport attracts people into Wales.

Also, with regard to the US market—I appreciate that there was a question earlier on this—there’s a huge opportunity here with regard to US visitors visiting Wales. US visitors tend to stay longer and spend more money, and, of course, the exchange rate is an advantage to us at the moment. So, I would be interested in more details about the campaigns that are currently running, or that you plan to run in future, in the US.

As I understand it, the biggest rise in overseas numbers to Wales has come from the 13 countries in eastern Europe that have recently joined the EU. So, I would be interested in hearing what the Welsh Government is doing, in association with the tourism sector, in responding to both the challenges and opportunities that are posed by Brexit.

The Cabinet Secretary has also said that these promising figures prove that Visit Wales’s marketing is working well and having an impact. I would say, though, and I’m sure that you will agree with me, Cabinet Secretary, that it is the tourism businesses that deserve much of the credit for embracing the themes, such as the Year of Legends.

Of course, Visit Wales has come a long way with regard to its marketing output, compared to the now-infamous advert that actually championed Wales as the land of outstandingly bad mobile coverage. [Laughter.] Things have moved on since then. In a survey earlier this year, less than a third of tourism businesses believed that recent campaigns had been effective in promoting Wales as a tourist destination, and three quarters still feel that Visit Wales and the Welsh Government could make better use of resources to promote tourism.

It’s also important, of course, that we analyse the effectiveness of campaigns. The Cabinet Secretary will be aware—I’ve written to him and asked questions on this next point during committee recently as well—that I am concerned that Visit Wales can’t currently provide a breakdown of figures for each campaign by print, tv and digital marketing. They can’t provide those details to me, and, more importantly, they can’t provide them to you in order to analyse how effective campaigns are. So, I would be grateful if you could commit to making a statement to Plenary when you have got access to that marketing spend, because I think we do need to measure how successful each campaign is. We need to measure how successful the Year of Adventure was, as well as the Year of Legends and, of course, next time, the Year of the Sea. Perhaps you could also widen your answer out on that with regard to how you are measuring, and how you are going to measure, the success of the Year of Legends as well.

Finally, Cabinet Secretary, with specific reference to the Year of Legends, I don’t recall you referring in your statement to the decision to postpone the international competition to design and build two landmarks commemorating national legends in 2017—one at Flint castle and one at a separate Cadw site. So, can I ask you, Cabinet Secretary, to outline the reasons for this postponement and confirm whether the flagship project will be proceeding as planned?

I thank you, Cabinet Secretary, once again for your statement. I also, as you do, hope that the Year of Legends campaign will continue to raise the profile of Wales and bring lots of visitors to Wales in the coming year.

Can I advise you not to widen your answers out to the Member, but just keep it succinct and on the statement, please?

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’ll try to deal with the questions as succinctly as possible. It is true that this is a partnership that has grown the visitor economy. It’s not just because of good work by the Welsh Government or Visit Wales—it is down to working in close partnership with the entire sector. I think that the success of the Year of Adventure shows that, now more than ever, we are working as one in promoting Wales.

In terms of figures, you’re absolutely right: we are experiencing record numbers of visitors, but it is the expenditure that is most important to businesses, and expenditure by international visitors to Wales has increased by 8.3 per cent. That’s after a record year previously, and a record year before that. What is perhaps most important now is that expenditure by day visitors to Wales is higher than the UK average. Here in Wales, a visitor will spend £38 per visit, compared with £34 in the UK. What that suggests is that the quality of the offer on average here in Wales is now greater than the quality of the offer and the quality of the product across the UK. That’s something that we should be very proud of and we should thank the sector for as well.

In terms of Cardiff Airport, well, of course, Cardiff Airport is one of the fastest growing regional airports anywhere in Europe, and is achieving record success. Its continued growth would no doubt be helped through the devolution of air passenger duty, but I am confident that Cardiff Airport are aggressively seeking new routes that will bring new tourists to Wales.

In terms of the United States, that’s deemed to be one of our key markets, and I would hope that a proportion of the £5 million—the additional £5 million—that will be spent by Visit Wales will incorporate more marketing opportunities. This brings me to the other point about disaggregating data for marketing campaigns between print, digital, television, and so forth. I think I gave an undertaking in committee last week, which I will give again today, that I will look at providing detailed data in that regard.

The art installation competition attracted, in the first instance, insufficient interest and there were also companies that said that they would like to enter but they weren’t in a position to in the short timescale, so it will begin in early December. It will be taking place, and we’ll be in a position during the Year of Legends to unveil the winning installations. In terms of how we judge the success of the Year of Legends, well, we look at the hard facts, which is what I think the Member is asking for. Our goal is to drive more than £320 million of additional consumer spend in Wales from the domestic market, and more than £7 million of travel trade business to Wales from our top-100 operators. If we achieve this, it should deliver another record-breaking year for tourism in Wales.

Can I first of all welcome the European Champions League final coming to Cardiff? I very much hope there’s a Cardiff player playing in that match, in terms of Gareth Bale. Could I also remind the Minister—and I hope that he’ll welcome it—that there are 19 major sporting events taking place in Wales every year, and that Swansea are playing in the largest league in the world, which brings in a substantial number of people, not just from England but from all over the world, to watch it? If we’re putting bids in, as Neil McEvoy seems to be, can I throw in Ivor Allchurch and Robbie James for major sporting achievement?

What I was going to talk about, though, is: have I mentioned Joseph Jenkins, John Elias, Henry Rees, Christmas Evans and, perhaps the one who gives it away, Evan Roberts? Major preachers in Wales. Wales has got a huge reputation for preachers and I think that, if we’re looking at the American market and if we’re looking at the religious parts of America, the role played by these people and others—. And it’s not just America, but Singapore, for example. We’ve got the situation where New Siloh in Landore has been taken over by a church in Singapore. But, we’ve also got a huge chapel, Tabernacle, in Morriston. So, the question I’ve got is: should we be aiming at the American market, but should we be aiming some of our great religious history, some of the great names from our religious history, not least of whom is Evan Roberts? Should we be doing that in order to try to attract American tourists to visit the chapels of Wales? It’s amazing, actually, how many visit Ebenezer in Swansea, which is Christmas Evans’s former chapel, despite the fact it’s not advertised and you have to engage in substantial research to find out where it was and what it is now. So, I think that there’s a huge opportunity there, and I would hope that the Minister would look to try to take advantage of that.

I’d like to thank the Member for his questions. I, too, am looking forward to the UEFA Champions League final, and I’m very pleased that Swansea football club remain in the premiership and, indeed, we’ll be using their occasions, their matches, to promote Wales as a place for trade and investment by inviting would-be investors to join us at some of their key matches in the present season. There are many, many legends that I’m sure Members would be able to point to, of both national and local interest to their constituencies, as 2017 is all about celebrating not just the national legends that make Wales famous on the global stage, but also celebrating local legends who, perhaps, have been lost or forgotten, but who deserve recognition. I’d encourage all Members to work with community groups to encourage them to participate in 2017 the Year of Legends and, if necessary, to apply for funding to carry out innovative events or to produce very innovative products as well.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement. First, can I congratulate the Cabinet Secretary on the very successful Year of Adventure? I would add that following his own personal involvement with Bear Grylls and Richard Parks, we are all grateful that he chose not to pursue a career in that direction. The excellent promotion of such iconic attractions as ZipWorld in Bethesda and the world’s largest underground trampoline in the Llechwedd slate caverns, together with the more established attractions such as Pembrokeshire’s coastal paths and a whole host of other adventure activities too numerous to mention here, must not go unnoticed. I’m sure we all look forward to the Year of Legends having an equally if not better outcome in attracting new and greater numbers of visitors to Wales. I think all of us would agree that there are legends aplenty here in Wales with an equally plentiful landscape of castles and places of historic interest.

Whilst this direction of travel is to be welcomed, Cabinet Secretary, does the Cabinet Secretary not agree with me that we should also seek to keep these new visitors in Wales for longer periods? So, could he outline any proposals he has to achieve this? I bring this to your notice because there are a number of hotels in Cardiff that are very worried about access to the hotels, that’s coming about by the development of the bus station and proposals from Cardiff city council. So, could you just outline where you believe we ought to be travelling with regard to that? Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Member for his very kind comments. It has been a pleasure working with the entire sector during the Year of Adventure and in particular the ambassadors who I think have done sterling work in promoting Wales overseas. The Member mentioned ZipWorld and I think what’s worth drawing attention to is that, next year, we’ll see the launch of a new unique product in north-west Wales—an alpine coaster. It will be difficult to find any similar attraction anywhere in the UK and, again, it will contribute to the enhanced reputation that the region has as a destination for adventure.

The other point to raise with regard to some new products that have been created in rural Wales is that they are leading to jobs and opportunities particularly for many young people who would otherwise, perhaps, have had to move out of their communities. So, in that regard, the visitor economy, or the performance of the visitor economy, has been absolutely crucial in recent years. I am determined to make sure that it does continue to grow right through to 2020, which will be the end point of the current ‘Welsh Government Strategy for Tourism 2013-2020: Partnership for Growth’.

David Rowlands drew attention to the need to turn day visitors into staycation opportunities and that’s absolutely right. We have funded some of the destination management programmes in Wales to draw up tour itineraries and we are also appealing more to tour operators to transform Wales from being a place that is seen as a great place to visit for a day to a great place to visit for at least a weekend or longer. We are also putting together at the moment a routes of Wales project that will enable visitors to come to Wales for a significant length of time to experience some of the most important cultural and heritage routes anywhere in the country.

And, finally, Hannah Blythyn.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thanks for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and I was pleased to hear you open by reiterating how north Wales was voted one of the world’s best regions by Lonely Planet. It won’t surprise colleagues to learn that I cannot hear that enough. The Year of Legends gives us a unique opportunity to showcase both our history and heritage, both the magnificent myths and the legends of our industrial might, and the ordinary working people that helped enable this, bringing both cultural and economic benefits across Wales.

Today and tomorrow there’s a Historic Mold exhibition taking place in my constituency—an event that includes the abbreviated history of Mold, learning more about poets and authors like Daniel Owen and, of course, the Mold gold cape. Cabinet Secretary, you’ll be familiar with the story of the Mold gold cape, discovered in 1833 by workmen quarrying for stone in a burial ground, and now considered one of the top 10 treasures of the British Museum in London. Cabinet Secretary, will you meet with me to discuss how the Mold gold cape can be returned to its place of discovery to be exhibited and its story told as part of the Year of Legends? You’d also be welcome to join me on a visit to Mold to look at where the gold cape could be exhibited, and the role that local partners could play to the benefit of the north-east cultural and visitor economy.

Can I thank Hannah Blythyn for her question, and say that I also very much enjoy repeating the fact that north Wales is the fourth greatest place to visit on the planet, and it’s something that we should all be very proud of? In terms of the Year of Legends, 2016, the Year of Adventure, will see one of the biggest events held back for the end of the year—the segue moment where we move into the Year of Legends—and that will be the Nutcracker experience that is taking place at Theatr Clwyd beginning on 1 December, with, again, a unique product. It’ll be an outdoor ice-skating experience combined with a Nutcracker experience inside the theatre.

In terms of the gold cape, this is a hugely important artefact, and I have to say that, when it came to Wrexham museum, I thought it was presented in the most imaginative and compelling way possible to draw visitors to that particular facility. But I’d very much like the gold cape to return to its home town, and therefore I’d be delighted to meet with the Member and with any interested parties from Mold, her constituency, and the local authority of Flintshire, to discuss how we might work with the British Museum, and, indeed, National Museum Wales, in identifying a place within the home town of the gold cape so that it can return, at least for a short period of time, if at all possible, during the Year of Legends.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.