I’m certain that I’m not the only one who reads headlines like this and thinks “good for them, let’s not go ruining it for the locals shall we”
Clearly they should have gone with dolphins.
…I’ll show myself out.
You did that on porpoise didn’t you?
and now I finally get the pun 🤦
I think Wales is one of those things like Skegness or Blackpool. It’s more for natives than it is for somebody to fly a thousand miles to see.
It’s nice and all, and fairly unique within the UK, but it’s not that unique internationally. Most countries have a nice nature-y hilly bit. They don’t all have a bunch of soldiers with silly hats that pass out in summer.
The Lake District is further from London than Wales, but plenty of tourists go there. The problem with Wales is that it’s just less tourist-friendly. The Lakes has been a popular tourist spot from more than a century and is really geared up for it, with loads of nice pubs and cafes and shops and all that. Same in Cornwall. It’s not like Wales is the only choice for nice countryside.
“Poor transport infrastructure” was cited as a reason preventing Wales from attracting more people visiting the UK.
Yes, let’s fix the unspoiled countryside with more roads.
It probably means having more buses and trains avaliable to use (by building more maintenance facilities and larger stations for interchange). As having one come every 4h is a bit rubbish and would put anyone off.
I’ve been to places in Wales where it’s a bus out in the morning and one back home in the evening.
People can’t rely on buses that run like this would you risk getting a bus out somewhere if the only return bus might get cancelled?
Not on your nelly! Just the chance of missing it would be enough to put me off.
Public transport needs to be cheep, reliable, and often to work. You can get away with any two of these at a push. Public transport works in London because you know no matter when (within reason) you turn up another bus/train/tube will be there with 15mins.
That’s it, they need to be as regular as… buses.
If I wander down to the bus stop or train station I don’t really have to know the times as something will be along shortly.
A core problem in Wales’ transport infrastructure is that it’s very difficult to go North-South via public transport. The campaign for a North-South railway is something that’s been going on for a while.
Currently if you want to go from Swansea to Bangor, Google tells me it’s a 4hr 24m (155 mile) drive, but it’s around a 5hr 20m-ish train journey that takes you east to Cardiff, then north to Chester or Crewe (in England!) before back west to Bangor - and if you want to go onwards from Bangor (e.g. to Caernarfon) then you’re reliant on buses.
What that means in practice is that for international tourists we’re basically saying you can visit Cardiff/Swansea/Gower/Brecon in the South, or you can visit Snowdonia/Anglesey in the North, but not both - whereas if they visit England then they’ve got more options.
Here is the issue with UK planning, first through it new roads, not new public transport.
