Four exceptionally well-informed speakers gave their analysis of the industry at the 2010 WTA Annual Conference on 22nd October, and lifted the veil on some powerful new marketing opportunities:

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Many people look to visit a country for its history, culture and scenery. One country that has all of this and much more is Wales; this might just be the destination you’re looking for.

For years, tourists have flocked to holidays in Wales for the chance to escape life’s pressures, to explore a country famed for its natural beauty and genuine hospitality. Yet, within the limited time of a short break holiday in Wales, it’s all too easy to miss out on some of the country’s hidden gems, or getting lost along its many winding roads and backwaters.

Chris Osbourne, chairman of the Wales Tourism Alliance, has predicted that the Welsh travel industry might be blighted by a post-recession lull for several years.

Cauwill Technologies in Limerick and Tourism Wales UK have signed a deal that will see Cauwill provide tourists to Wales with location-based service technologies through http://www.wales.info. The deal will also create jobs in the developer and marketing sectors.

A decade on from publication by This Week of its report entitled A Snapshot from the Middle of a Revolution, Tourism Wales UK has emerged as the largest and most progressive online marketing membership organisation in Wales with its focus entirely on bringing visitors to Wales from the rest of the UK and overseas.

Tourism Wales UK has passed the 10,000 enquiries mark after reporting a 100% increase in direct commission-free booking enquiries for members during the first half of this year.

‘Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin must invite Tiger Woods onto the U.S. team. We all know it. That’s a given’, says CBS Sports National Columnist, Gregg Doyel – before urging Woods, in as forceful a way you could imagine with some pretty choice language to drive his point home, to decline the invitation.

In a recent Wales Online article, chairman of the Wales Tourism Alliance, Chris Osborne, who runs the Fourcroft Hotel in Tenby, said business this year has been worse than at any time in his 18 years in the trade – but he doesn’t blame the weather!

Like most hotel and accommodation owners you are probably looking closer at your internet sales and how much it is costing you when you are taking bookings from 3rd party websites. Meanwhile, with the rise of the internet, traditional media has slumped and is expensive by comparison and whether it will ever come back is uncertain. So it is only right that business owners should revalue their internet presence.