Vaughan Gething, Minister for Economy
Today I am launching our new “National Events Strategy for Wales 2020 -2030" at the Royal College of Music and Drama.
Events are a vital part of the visitor economy and as set out in the Programme for Government, the Welsh Government is “determined to do all we can to help our tourism, sports and arts industries recover from the experience of the pandemic”. The impact of the pandemic cannot be underestimated - the events sector was one of the first to close and last to open and the importance of events to the economy of Wales and the well-being of the nation was recognised by the support that we provided of almost £24m to over 200 individual businesses in the events sector through three rounds of the Cultural Recovery Fund.
The previous strategy “A major events strategy for Wales 2010-2020” was launched in 2010, Since then we have made strong progress working across the sector, and across Wales, to develop an impressive portfolio of cultural and sporting events and, more recently, we have entered the business events market for the first time. We have worked with local and international event owners, utilised our top-class venues and natural landscapes and worked with local authorities, communities and event agencies across Wales to develop and grow sustainable events that deliver economic benefits, showcase our nation, raise our profile and help us deliver Welsh Government priorities.
The new strategy will build on these successes. It is aimed at ensuring we expand the contribution that events already make to the seven goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act and is based on the principal of partnership. We have worked closely with the sector in its development, building on those strong foundations of collaboration that emerged during the pandemic, It identifies clear ambitions to ensure an all-Wales approach to supporting events that are authentically Welsh and maximising existing assets and delivering a geographical and seasonal spread of indigenous and international events across our sports, business and cultural sectors and across the whole of Wales.
The strategy has been developed in consultation with the sector and we will now work with stakeholders to develop an implementation plan in order to deliver our vision that ‘Wales stages outstanding events that support the well-being of its people, place, and the planet’