Promoting Wales to international tourists

The Welsh government is keen to promote Welsh tourism because tourism contributes directly £2.7 billion (8%) to the Welsh economy and 12.7% of employment in Wales. Acknowledging the strategic importance of tourism, Welsh government is constantly seeking advice and consultation on relevant issues, such as how to best promote Wales to international tourists and whether local authorities should be allowed to enact a visitor tax.

Our research speaks directly to the Welsh government’s call to boost tourism. We suggest the Welsh government and relevant stakeholders in the tourism sector brand Wales as the land of dragons and legends in order to maximize its appeal to international tourists. This will help Wales tap into its unique cultural and historical heritage, while capitalise on being one of the only two countries in the world that has a dragon on its national flag. At a company level, it will help individual tourism and hospitality businesses to increase their business revenues from tourists.

Our work has been received and published by the Welsh Select Committee and we gave evidence to Parliament in July 2022. Watch it here.

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• Wales should rebrand as ‘the land of dragons and legends’ to increase tourism

• Written evidence submitted by Professor Dorothy A. Yen, Dr Ana Canhoto, and Dr Liyuan Wei, Brunel University London (TOU0005)

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dorothy Yen - Professor Dorothy A. Yen is a Professor in Marketing. She is currently the Director of Research at Brunel Business School, Brunel University London.  Dorothy takes a consumer-centric approach to understanding and discussing marketing, branding, and tourism matters. Dorothy studies how culture affects human behaviour, in both B2B and B2C domains. In the B2B domain, she looks at cross-cultural business relationships, with a particular focus on understanding how cultural-specific factors affect business relationships and collaborations. In the B2C domain, she studies consumer acculturation and sojourners’ and migrants' consumption practices and social media activities in relation to their cultural identity, as well as tourism boycotts and tourists' interactions with destinations on social media. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dorothy explored how migrants in the UK attempted to cope with the life-threatening disease while dealing with institutional uncertainty and a hostile host environment. Dorothy’s proposal on branding Wales as a land of dragons and legends triggered numerous discussions, and she has been invited to give evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee.  Dorothy is a member of the Marketing and Corporate Brand Research Group at Brunel Business School and a lab leader of the Responsible Consumption and the Circular Economy Lab for the CBASS research centre of Substantiality and Entrepreneurship. Office hours are provided on Wednesdays from 11am to 1pm. Students can also email her to book an appointment at a mutually convenient time. This can be either on campus or via Microsoft TEAM upon mutual agreement.

Project last modified 12/10/2023