Why so many tourism associations? Partly it’s geographic, people form local communities believe that they have uniquely shared needs. But I think it’s such a mess because of a desire of a few to castle build, of may to engage in protectionism and of most to make some money or pay for a salary of an admin or officer of some kind. And because of these less than altruistic foundations the numerous and yearly increasing associations are bewildering and lacking in a strong collective voice.
This doesn’t all mean that I devote my life to moaning… But it does mean I will pursue officials and large entities and pressure them into explaining why they are such a ‘waste of space’. That’s what it comes down to. ‘They’ are effectively as impotent and sitting in the carriage of a runaway train just like the rest of us. I’ll never win against Google or TripAdvisor, the pavements of Penarth will never be ripped up and replaced because I ask for this to be done, the Welsh Government will not stop wasting your money…
So we are giving ourselves an award. It’s Tourism For Wales Award and the category is ‘Most LIKED Tourism Business In Wales’ and we’ll have that for 2016, for 2017, for 2018, for 2019 and again for 2020. Thank you 🙂