Leveraging folklore and fantasy to promote small destinations: the case of Visit Wales

This paper analyses how folklore can be harnessed by destination management organizations (DMOs) and related agencies through story-telling, screen tourism and product development. It presents a two-stage study, which explores policy suggestions proposed at a United Kingdom Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into Wales’s international marketing. An online survey was conducted with international students, as representative of tourists open to less familiar destinations and well-represented amongst fantasy fans, to test the appeal of a differentiation strategy for Wales incorporating folklore. Having established the market potential of folklore, a co-design workshop was held with 36 tourism and creative sector stakeholders to discuss the challenges of leveraging legends and fantasy film locations to attract international visitors. The paper discusses the tourism policy and practice opportunities of adopting this strategy for the folklore-rich but resource-constrained small destination of Wales. It concludes with insights, which have relevance for similar national DMOs and related agencies.