The Wales 'brand' in Cardiff

All I'm saying is what we have is not particularly unique, and we shouldn't be surprised if people choose other locations to visit that offer similar experiences.
If you where doing a once and a life time trip to Europe from overseas, there are just so many places they have so much more than we can offer. It makes sense to just accept that.
Everywhere around the world many people feel that were they live is somehow special but only a few places truly are that special.

What we can do however is change what we have, we can look at the man made pine forests the desolate waste lands of the valleys and deserted seaside towns and bland middling cities and learn what we can do better to make them more attractive to visitors.

I really don't get where you're coming from here. Surely, far from thing their locality is special, rather like you, most people run down and take for granted all the sites where they live. It's a universally accepted phenominum that all over the world, locals rarely visit attractions close to home, yet are prepared to travel to visit often inferior ones.

I have numerous examples of the "taking your locale for granted" attitude. While holidaying near Clearwater, Florida in The Gulf of Mexico some local store workers said to us "fancy travelling all the way from the UK to visit here(!)". I remember while visiting Whistler, British Columbia, Canada with its spectacular mountainous scenery, one of the ski instructors talking about their colleague who was marrying a girl from England. "Steve thinks she's going to come and live here! Like she's from Birmingham, England. As if she's going to leave there and come live in Pemberton!"

Plenty if people from Wales holiday in The Republic of Ireland and go on excursions to The Ring of Kerry, Blarney Castley, etc. These places are always packed with other international tourists from further afield. Ireland really seem to market themselves well. I've always been disappointed and heard many "Well, it's very nice, but it's no different to west Wales really" from fellow Welsh people. And you can't really deny this, except perhaps our roads are better.

As for castles, did you know that there are more castles per square mile in Wales than anywhere else in Europe? So it's really not true that plenty of places have castles like us. If you lived in the dull, featureless landscape of the south east England near the M4 corridor, why would you breath be taken away by the Irish countryside, but not the Welsh countryside? It's just that the former have managed to capture the spirit more.

Guys the elephant is in the room, if Wales is so great as you say, then we would be flooded with tourists and immigrants. We are not, and that tells you all you need to know. You can only go so far with saying it branding and promotional issues.

Guys the elephant is in the room, if Wales is so great as you say, then we would be flooded with tourists and immigrants. We are not, and that tells you all you need to know. You can only go so far with saying it branding and promotional issues.

Yes, because people always automatically know about such things and have inherent knowledge about everything. What a desperately stupid response.

Guys the elephant is in the room, if Wales is so great as you say, then we would be flooded with tourists and immigrants. We are not, and that tells you all you need to know. You can only go so far with saying it branding and promotional issues.

Yes, because people always automatically know about such things and have inherent knowledge about everything. What a desperately stupid response.

Isn't more stupid to think that your country is so special that if only everyone knew they would flock here? This just the same as people blindly supporting a football team, political party or religion just because of where they come from.

It less stupid to be objective in your opinions and try to accurately gauge opinion on something that is a matter of personal preference, such as visiting countries ?

Guys the elephant is in the room, if Wales is so great as you say, then we would be flooded with tourists and immigrants. We are not, and that tells you all you need to know. You can only go so far with saying it branding and promotional issues.

Yes, because people always automatically know about such things and have inherent knowledge about everything. What a desperately stupid response.

Wow sounds more like you are desperate, its not like our most famous tourist spots have sprung up over night, if people were going to come they would but dont, or at least the ones with money dont. As an example take Caerphilly castle, the second biggest castle in the UK and yet no one has heard of it outside the local area. When they tried to clean it up and gentrify it there was massive complaints, so its sits, a dirty grey mess in a rather poor commuter town with a yearly festival that only draws locals and maybe enthusiasts from Bristol.

Why the heck does it need 'gentrifying'?!!?? Its a bloody castle.
And again another ridiculous claim that no one has heard of it outside the local area/the UK. Typical bs made up fact nonsense.
I don't think anyone has said 'our' country is so special. Rather we have mentioned why Wales is fabulous in our eyes and have said why we love it. Not that it is better than anywhere else but just that we love and enjoy it.
The fact you say 'your' country is interesting....

Let's move on hey

Isn't more stupid to think that your country is so special that if only everyone knew they would flock here? This just the same as people blindly supporting a football team, political party or religion just because of where they come from.

It less stupid to be objective in your opinions and try to accurately gauge opinion on something that is a matter of personal preference, such as visiting countries ?

Nobody has said their country is "so special". That's a great straw man you've demolished there, but is still nonetheless just a logical fallacy. Argue your point properly.

Wow sounds more like you are desperate, its not like our most famous tourist spots have sprung up over night, if people were going to come they would but dont, or at least the ones with money dont. As an example take Caerphilly castle, the second biggest castle in the UK and yet no one has heard of it outside the local area. When they tried to clean it up and gentrify it there was massive complaints, so its sits, a dirty grey mess in a rather poor commuter town with a yearly festival that only draws locals and maybe enthusiasts from Bristol.

In the same paragraph that you're dismissing Wales being poor at marketing itself as even as a concept and saying "if people were going to come they would", you're claiming nobody other than locals have heard of Caerphilly Castle(!). Two opposing positions in one paragraph. Congratulations!

Simon__200

I was making 1 point if you read it properly, that despite our tourist site having been there for literally 100's of years they do not get huge visitor numbers and the majority are local, indicating that there is either no knowledge of Caerphilly and its castle or that something puts people off from coming to see the second largest castle in Britain.

Here's the Welsh Government report on visits to tourist attractions in Wales (the most recent appears to be for 2018)
https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/s ... s-2018.pdf

Quite a lot of the attractions compare quite favourably with those listed on the ALVA website: https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=610