Examination of Witnesses (Questions 260
- 261)
TUESDAY 30 JANUARY 2001
MR DAVID
QUARMBY, MR
BERNARD DONOGHUE
AND MR
BILL ISHMAEL
260. One very brief question on the image again.
You were talking about culture and you were talking about male
voice choirs and other choirs and everything thing else. One thing
we have not mentioned—and it came across very strongly yesterday
in one of our meetings—is the promotion of Welsh produce,
Welsh foods. You might argue that that is part of culture but
people in this area who sell Welsh produce, foods and drinks,
would not agree with you. They might perhaps feel that Welsh produce
should be promoted as something separate and there should be a
definite market in order to encourage interest outside of Wales
in this area.
(Mr Quarmby) Food and drink are very much part of
the lifestyle that we promote when we promote different parts
of the country. Maybe a fifth or a quarter of the journalists
that visit Britain at our behest to write about different parts
of the country come from lifestyle magazines or food or gourmet
magazines. They will always encourage and many of them do write
about the food of the country or the food of the region that they
go to. Where it is possible (although we do not have a lot of
direct contact) through the National Tourist Board we certainly
encourage the promotion and offering of local food and where we
can promote it we certainly do in our guides, whether it is Welsh
lamb or cheese or other food products specific to the region.
(Mr Ishmael) Journalists visits certainly are an important
part of this. If I can refer to that visit to the Gower. One of
the places which came out very well covered in that article that
has appeared today is Stembridge Mill in the Gower where two guests
I brought along were immensely impressed with what they had We
had another journalist recently in Cape Town wanting to do a piece
about "in search of the leek". Again, there is the traditional
and the new because what she is looking for is not just cawl or
the traditional way of preparing the leek but the way the innovative
chaps we have throughout Wales are adding a new dimension to the
way they treat this traditional respected vegetable.
Chairman
261. One last question. How successful do you
think the myths and legends logo has been? Is it mythical and
legendary?
(Mr Quarmby) I think it is absolutely right. When
we did our original branding and brand values with the Wales Tourist
Board in 1996-97, we used the sentence "land of nature and
legend" as a way of encapsulating in a very short sentence
Wales and I think the logo, in trying to illuminate and extend
that idea, is absolutely right. It sits very comfortably with
the brand values and the message of the distinctiveness and the
slight air of special mystery that is Wales.
Chairman: On that note, we will finish. Thank
you very much for coming today.
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