Originally Posted by
ATNotts
The problem for CWL is establishing its USPs (unique selling points). Clearly, for a start it has a longer runway that neighbouring BRS, but that is probably to some extent negated by the poor road links even though road access to BRS is hardly fantastic. It clearly isn't constrained by a NIMBY council as BRS is, so you would have thought that attracting carriers to service not only the immediate South Wales catchment but also passengers from across the border wouldn't necessarily be an issue.
Of course, Bristol and the immediate surrounding area is more affluent than Cardiff, Swansea and Newport which makes expanding into routes beyond the base Alicante, Malaga, Balearics and Canaries more of a challenge, and for whatever reason inbound tourism to South Wales is on a far smaller scale than Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular. Why that is, apart from the North American "Scots" heritage thing it is difficult to fathom. I'm sure the Welsh must have emigrated in numbers around the globe but there doesn't appear to be the same "pull" that brings descendants to Wales to visit their ancestral homes.
Perhaps part of the problem in attracting visitors to Wales from outside the UK might have to do with marketing. The Scottish tourist organisations (is it Visit Scotland these days?) are always very active, and the country is promoted as "the home of golf" but is there any reason why golf can't be promoted better in Wales; Cardiff has Celtic Manor Resort on its doorstep for one. There must be many other splendid courses around Gower, Pembrokeshire etc? Then there is the history, the language, the culture. Wales ought to be a big inbound market. If the Welsh government is responsible for tourism development they are perhaps not doing all they could to market the Principality abroad, and then to bring visitors in through the airport which is also state owned.
I'm not stating any of this as fact, but just thinking out load as to what the issues might be in making CWL successful.
How large is the Cardiff core catchment area? A quick google search would suggest not much larger than 1 million. Appreciate Cardiff is a capital city but I was under the impression some of the outlying areas suffer with relatively poor incomes and generally high levels of unemployment overall and therefore propensity to fly might be lower? BRS has access to a much wider and more prosperous market and Cardiff urban area is part of that wider market, so would make sense from a commercial perspective to grow from BRS.
Just an observation but viable discussion point?