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.