Reasons For Tourism in Wales
Wales' history and culture attract tourists. The Museum of Welsh Life, which focuses largely on the industrial past of Wales, is currently the most popular tourist attraction in Wales, attracting over 600,000 visitors annually. The scars of the industrial revolution and Wales' industrial heritage can still be seen on parts of the Welsh landscape today. Many other places of historical interest attract large numbers of tourists: for example the many castles, such as Caernarfon Castle and Caerphilly Castle — most of them built to enable or to consolidate the English conquest of Wales, during the reign of the English king Edward I.
The varied landscape of Wales also attracts tourism. There are three national parks: the Brecon Beacons National Park, the Snowdonia National Park and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Popular activities in the national parks include hill walking, hiking, canoeing, mountain biking, kayaking and climbing. Wales is also becoming increasingly popular for 'extreme' sports, such as surfing, hang gliding and downhill cycling (in which Wales hosts the 'Dragon Downhill Series'). The terrain of Wales has also attracted the World Rally Championship (WRC). The Wales Rally GB is held annually. The 2005 Wales Rally GB saw the first WRC stage to be set indoors, at the Millennium Stadium.
In Cardiff, the regenerated Cardiff Bay area is one of the most popular destinations.
Another increasingly popular reason for visiting Wales, as with the rest of the UK — especially for those from North America — is genealogy, with many visitors coming to Wales to explore their family and ancestral roots. 1.8 million United States citizens are estimated to have Welsh ancestral roots, including former presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
Read more about this topic: Seaside Resorts In Wales
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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“In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion.”
—Robert Runcie (b. 1921)
“I just come and talk to the plants, really—very important to talk to them, they respond I find.”
—Charles, Prince Of Wales (b. 1948)