Bringing Creativity Into the Heart of the Visitor Economy

Working in the creative industries, I have always believed that our sector plays a far wider role in regional life than people often assume. We bring audiences together, develop specialist technical skills and create experiences that shape how people feel about a place.

What has become increasingly clear is how closely this work connects with tourism and hospitality, and how much potential there is when these sectors collaborate. Academi Croeso gives us a practical way to explore that connection and to support a more joined-up approach to skills and career development across North Wales.

Academi Croeso is a new initiative designed to strengthen the tourism and hospitality workforce through a partnership between employers, educators and the North Wales Growth Deal. It uses a hub-and-spoke model, with Grŵp Llandrillo Menai acting as the central hub and organisations like Theatr Clwyd, Portmeirion, Zip World, Snowdonia Hospitality and Leisure and the National Trust acting as spoke partners. Together, we will provide a single, coherent route into training, apprenticeships and career opportunities for people looking to enter or progress within the visitor economy.

For Theatr Clwyd, this partnership arrives at a time of real change. Our redevelopment has given us world class facilities that will serve the region for decades to come. These spaces are not just for performances; they include production workshops, hospitality areas and training environments that are directly relevant to the broader visitor economy. Through Academi Croeso, we will now be able to use these resources to support skills development in a more structured and accessible way.

As a spoke partner, we have committed to delivering at least 50 apprenticeships over the next ten years, covering the full range of roles that contribute to a thriving cultural and visitor offer. Those include marketing and communications, events management, duty management, sales, technical production, and our hospitality and catering activities. The apprenticeships will be tailored to both sector-wide needs and the specific requirements of our organisation, ensuring that people gain skills that are relevant and transferable.

One of the most important aspects of this model is that it recognises the creative industries as an integral part of the visitor economy. For many years, these sectors have often been viewed separately, despite the clear overlap in skills and impact. High-quality cultural experiences bring visitors to the region, support local businesses and contribute to North Wales’ reputation. The customer service, operational, technical and leadership skills that underpin this work sit side by side with those found in tourism and hospitality. By connecting formally through Academi Croeso, we can begin to develop more coherent and consistent training pathways across all these areas.

This is particularly valuable when thinking about talent retention. Over the past two decades, we have seen many talented individuals leave North Wales in search of opportunities that allow them to build sustainable careers. By working with partners to develop a clear and supported route from entry-level roles to more senior positions, we can help address that long-standing challenge. Theatr Clwyd has delivered pockets of successful apprenticeship work in the past, but what we have lacked is a long-term, structured programme that sits within a wider regional offer. Academi Croeso gives us the framework to change that.

What stands out to me most is the ambition behind the project. This is not a short-term intervention; it is a decade-long commitment to strengthening the skills base of the region. That long-term focus matters. It allows us to think beyond immediate workforce pressures and instead to build the foundations for a resilient and sustainable sector. It also creates a shared sense of responsibility between the hub, the spoke partners and the communities we serve.

The partnership element is particularly important. While our work at Theatr Clwyd is very different from the work of other partners, there is so much we can learn from one another. Each organisation brings different strengths, different facilities and different ways of working. That diversity is, in many ways, the strength of the hub-and-spoke model. It enables us to broaden our understanding of what tourism and hospitality can mean in North Wales and to contribute to a visitor economy that is more connected, more confident and more responsive to change.

As we move forward, my hope is that our involvement will benefit both the sector and the communities we serve. Our facilities in North Wales will attract national and international attention, but their purpose is rooted in supporting local people. Through our arts and cultural programmes, our high-quality production work, our involvement in William Aston Hall in Wrexham and our expanding hospitality offer, we are well placed to contribute to a vibrant regional visitor economy. Academi Croeso provides the structure to help us do that in partnership with others.

The initiative represents a shared belief that sector growth and workforce development must go hand in hand. For Theatr Clwyd, it is an opportunity to connect our creative work with a wider regional mission. For the region, it is a chance to recognise the creative industries as part of the visitor economy and to build skills that reflect that link. Most of all, it is a commitment to supporting people to develop careers here in North Wales and to strengthening the cultural, economic and social fabric of the place we all call home.

Liam Evans-Ford talks about this and more in the Ambition North Wales podcast episode Strengthening North Wales’ Hospitality and Tourism Workforce. Listen here.