Part of 2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 21 June 2017.
The Member makes a number of important points. In terms of the culture corridor, the A55 is one of three new internationally focused tourism routes, to be launched as the Wales Way in late 2017. The North Wales Way, the A55, which is the culture corridor, will be joined by the Cambrian Way, the A470, and the Coastal Way, the A470. What they are going to be striving to do is to capture the unique selling points of the respective regions and promote them even better to a national and international audience, and make the visitor experience not one of just visiting places, but also experiencing a journey. The routes are the main arteries of significant parts of Wales and they’ll encourage visitors to meander off piste and to visit some of our most spectacular locations.
But the Member is right that we need to look afresh at signage, particularly in a digital age, and with specific regard to brown signs, I can tell Members today that I’ve recently asked my officials to review the application process, as I am aware that there have been some delays. Those delays have been raised in this Chamber, I think primarily by Darren Millar, but also by others, and we’re working on improvements that will enable us to have greater control regarding the speed and delivery of those brown signs. We’ll be assigning the necessary resource to help expedite and close out those schemes that are still outstanding.
On heritage, though, the Member pointed to the value that the castles and the major heritage locations have. They contribute something in the region of £900 million to the Welsh economy every year, and they employ in total something in the region of 41,000 people. They actually account for 61 per cent of the purposes of visits to Wales by tourists, so they’re incredibly important and it’s my view that, as we develop the culture corridor, the Cambrian Way and the Coastal Way, at the very forefront of our consideration will be how to make best use of our magnificent historic environment.