Over recent months the Destination Pembrokeshire Partnership (DPP) - made up of Pembrokeshire Tourism, Pembrokeshire County Council, PLANED and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority - have been working closely together to produce two pieces of work.

The first is a new five-year Tourism Strategy for the county. Feedback from the trade through online questionnaires, face to face consultations and workshops have helped to form the new plan. The previous strategy, known as a Destination Management Plan, ran until the end of 2018, with an interim one currently in place. The new plan will run from 2020-2025 and will cover the aspirations for Pembrokeshire as a tourism destination. The plan will be available in early 2020.

The second is an exercise looking at whether some tourism services could be managed more effectively by operating in a different way, with the aim of supporting the multi-million-pound tourism industry.

Currently, a wide range of services are delivered by the Destination Pembrokeshire Partnership with each of the partners focusing on different areas of activity.

The new organisation, if approved, would be supported by the DPP, including funding from Pembrokeshire County Council, but led by the trade. The county council tourism (Destination Marketing) department would merge with Pembrokeshire Tourism, the county’s trade organisation, with support and resources also coming from PCNPA and PLANED. The resultant organisation would be led by the trade and would be able to deliver a larger range of activities, including tourism strategy, advocacy, marketing activity, trade engagement and support, plus a whole range of other activities.

Jane Rees-Baynes, chair of Pembrokeshire Tourism, said: “We, at Pembrokeshire Tourism, believe there are fantastic benefits to bringing together these resources into a single organisation for Pembrokeshire, which would help support and drive tourism growth in the county. We are excited that if the proposals are approved we will be able to offer more services and activities to the trade and I’m delighted that a recent PCC Scrutiny Committee was supportive of the plan.”

Work is now continuing towards finalising the proposals before they are taken to Cabinet in early 2020.

Portfolio Holder for Economy, Tourism, Leisure and Culture, Paul Miller, said: “These are important pieces of work which will underpin the future of tourism in Pembrokeshire.”