Welsh Country - Issue93 - Mar-Apr 20

WELCOME
Croeso Welcome
Issue 93, Mar - Apr 2020
The fun and festivities are now a
distant dream as all those involved
with tourism are gearing up for a
busy and profitable season. Fingers
crossed, let’s hope Easter has some
decent weather to encourage tourists
to see for themselves what Wales has
to offer. Let’s be fair, there’s lots of
choice for everyone, whatever their age
and whatever their tastes. My hope, as
always, is that Visit Wales has got its
marketing act running on overdrive to
ensure that tourists from outside Wales
and inside as well, flock to Wales and
do some serious exploring.
Now onto my favourite topic of
Welsh food and drink and my plea
is for Welsh eateries to try hard to
promote our local food. It’s important
for our industry that eateries not only
serve local food but shout about it
on their menus. I was in ‘Food For
Thought’ in Cardigan recently and
loved their idea of having a blackboard
listing which local suppliers they used.
Plus, whilst having my coffee I saw for
myself Gerwyn delivering milk and
then Tom Samways, the local butcher
on the high street also making a
delivery. This isn’t rocket science, but
just a sensible way for local businesses
to support each other and show locals
and visitors what superb food and
drink we have right across Wales. Plus,
don’t forget that money spent locally
stays in the area and might well create
more jobs. Apologies for talking food
again but as regular readers will know,
it is impossible for me not to!!!
Another worrying issue for me is our
high streets as Wales is losing shops
from its high streets at an alarming
rate. The latest figures I could find
were for the first half of 2019 which
saw the largest increase in shop
closures for five years. How scary is
that? Between January and June there
were 68 closures and only half of those
replaced. Losing 37 Welsh shops was
the greatest fall in the first half of each
of the last five years, while the 31
openings is the second lowest over the
same period. But huge congratulations
to Trechory, Rhondda Cynon Taff
who won the UK’s, yes the UK’s, Best
High Street Award! Hopefully other
Welsh towns will copy Trechory’s
game plan.
It was just as depressing a view
across the UK as a whole, but Wales
certainly had a steeper drop in shops
than the UK average. Obviously this
hasn’t just happened. Why something
hasn’t been done about it? We’re
in grave danger of our high streets
disappearing for ever, but a good start
would be some free car parking instead
of councils using car parks as cashcows.
Happy St Davids Day!
Until next time...
Kath Rhodes, Editor
kath@welshcountry.co.uk
Mar - Apr 2020 3