Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 26 September 2017.
We can have both. One of the issues that we face with large-scale events is we have to ensure that people have places to stay outside Wales. The reality is the capacity isn’t there entirely in Wales to host people as they come to Wales. That will develop over time. It isn’t the case that it’s either spending money on major events or spending money on the rest of Wales. For example, we’ve supported tourism initiatives around Wales. We look at initiatives such as Surf Snowdonia in the north and the support we give to rural businesses around Wales. In some ways, a major event provides an immediate economic impact, but also, of course, it acts as a catalyst for developing interest in Wales and, therefore, for tourism around the whole of Wales. So, the immediate impact, it’s true to say, is more localised, but the longer term impact, in my view, is much broader, and that’s of course the way we’d want it to be.