Tourism in Wrexham has grown 3.5 per cent in the last year, bringing in almost £116 million to the county’s economy.

Data submitted by local tourism operators in Wrexham has shown a 3.5 per cent growth in visitor spend in the last year, with a total of £115.9m being brought into the county in 2016.

Since 2010, this shows a growth of 37.2 per cent – making the county one of the strongest performers in Wales.

Badged as the Year of Adventure, 2016 saw popular tourism focussed events such as Focus Wales, ComicCon, the Wrexham Food Festival, a pop-up zip wire on Llwyn Isaf, Underneath the Arches, the Stereophonics gig at the Racecourse Ground and the popular Christmas programme in town.

In addition, investment in the sector by local businesses and regional marketing through the ‘North East Wales’ brand, plus the investment in a new website and brand for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Canal World Heritage Site has also been attributed to helping continue to raise the awareness of Wrexham as a place to visit for leisure and business.

Speaking about the positive annual results, lead member for the economy at Wrexham Council, Cllr Terry Evans, said: “These latest results are further good news for the tourism sector in Wrexham county borough.

“Being the local councillor for Chirk, I have seen myself how the town and the county has benefited from the growth in visitor numbers in recent years and I hope that these positive statistics encourage further investment and growth in the sector going forward.

“It’s also encouraging in particular to see a growth in our events programme and overnight stays which we have worked hard to promote.

“Both of these generally bring more income for our local businesses here in the county.”

Chairman of the This Is Wrexham tourism partnership, Peter McGivern, said: “We often can be accused of being overly positive about tourism in our county, however year on year the data gathered from local operators and national surveys justifies this as more and more visitors continue to choose Wrexham county as either a base to explore North Wales from or for days out at our local attractions or events.

“In this last year, the Tourism Partnership and the tourism team at Wrexham Council have collaborated on a number of initiatives and events, all of which have aimed to keep us competitive and attractive to visitors.

“In July, we also launched our new tourism card which aims to firstly continue the support that we have afforded hotels, restaurants and attractions in recent years and generate funding to put back into marketing, business support and visitor events.”

Early indications for 2017 are that tourism performance in both Wrexham and across North Wales will continue to develop as the Lonely Planet guide features the region as the seventh best place in the world to visit.