Attracting tourists to Ross-on-Wye throughout the year is key to sustaining the beautiful riverside market town and supporting local businesses. Ross-on-Wye Tourism Association’s recently relaunched website –http://visitrossonwye.com – is one of the marketing tools that the organisation has invested in to ensure visitors and tourists can find plenty of information to attract them to the area and keep them busy whilst they’re here.
From eating out to shopping, from riverside pursuits to local attractions, visitors can find a wealth of information plus ideas for trips around the town including the Heritage Trail and the innovative Museum Without Walls. There are also lots of ideas on the website’s blog page – including access information for people with limited mobility or camping and glamping options for those who prefer accommodation in the great outdoors. Other key tourist attractions that are promoted are the Market House with its upstairs gallery, St Mary’s Church with its iconic 205 foot spire, the Prospect Gardens with its stunning views of the River Wye and the Linear Arboretum adjacent to the riverside – and for those interested in antiques, reclaimed collectibles, jewellery and furniture, visitors can follow the Vintage Trail around the town centre.
Caroline Utting, Chair of the Ross-on-Wye Tourism Association commented: “We are very lucky to live in such a unique and spectacular part of the country. With UK based holidays becoming increasingly popular due to the current climate, people flock to Ross-on-Wye for a variety of different reasons, whether it’s for short sightseeing breaks or longer holidays involving outdoor pursuits such as walking or canoeing. We also see many day trippers enjoying the riverside or browsing our wonderful independent shops in the town.”
Jane Mainey, Ross-on-Wye Town Council’s Tourism and Marketing Manager who worked on development of the new website, added, “We hope the new and improved website shows off the best that Ross has to offer and we have lots more plans to develop our marketing strategy and tools to attract even more visitors to the town.”
Visit Britain’s latest report on tourism shows that in 2021, in the aftermath of the pandemic, inbound tourism into the UK was down 33% compared with 2020 and tourists spent £5.5 billion here (11% down on 2020). As restrictions lift, Visit Britain is a little more optimistic about the 2022 figures – in the first 4 months of this year, the UK received 5.9 million visits and inbound visitors spent £4.3 billion (despite the slow start in January due to the Omicron variant and travel restrictions). The highest number of visitors to the UK come from Europe – 4.6 million to be precise – compared with 600k from North America and 640k from the rest of the world. However, the biggest reason for travelling continues to be to visit friends and family which made up the highest proportion of UK visits throughout the first four months of 2022, totalling at 2.4m visits. Visit Britain will be updating its figures for the rest of 2022 as travel patterns emerge but the hope is to see a continued trend of more visitors to the UK and an increase in spend as we learn to live with Covid and its challenges.
