Part of 2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:44 pm on 1 March 2017.
Our heritage is remarkably important in our cultural and tourism offer and Neath abbey is a very important component of the heritage landscape in the Member’s region. I’m very pleased to say that Cadw are now supporting Neath abbey by having a dedicated in-house craft team working at the site. As a consequence, some areas of the abbey at the moment are inaccessible to the public, but with that dedicated work from the in-house craft team, I hope to be able to transform the abbey into a far better and more attractive tourist destination and visitor opportunity. But it’s not the only site in the Member’s region that is receiving support from Welsh Government. There are other assets, such as Oxwich castle and Hafod-Morfa Copperworks and Oystermouth castle, all of which are receiving funding. I’m keen to make sure that we can channel as much resource as possible through to south-west Wales because it is an incredibly attractive region of the UK, and I think the Member may, this evening, if she watches television, see the new advertisement from Visit Wales, which showcases some of our finest natural environment, but which also invites people in 2017 to generate their own legendary tales in Wales.