Bienvenue To Town Centre Coach Trips

This afternoon saw the first use of the new coach drop off point in the town centre aimed at encouraging visitors to Wrexham.

The first ‘official’ visit was today from a French tour party visiting St Giles and there have been provisional enquiries from Shropshire and Lancashire based coach operators for later this summer.

As Wrexham.com readers will know the drop off point has been mooted for months via the Town Centre Forum and various other avenues. Progress has been made via the Destination Management Partnership, with specific credit being attributed by local business people to Joe Bickerton of Wrexham Council and Kevin Critchley, the manager of Eagles Meadow.

Today we were given more detail of the scheme and background to its startup: “Demand for a more central coach parking facility in Wrexham Town Centre has been a subject of debate for a while now, and in the absence of a dedicated parking area – Wrexham’s Destination Management Partnership has put in place a drop-off / pick-up zone on the High Street, following an offer from Eagles Meadow to allow coaches to park-up in the loading bays under the centre.”

“To ensure a smooth visit, operators are advised to contact the Tourist Information Centre to let us know they are coming – then a greeting will be arranged on the High Street, along with visitor packs, secure parking, refreshments for the driver and a coach wash if needed.”

Wrexham.com were told by project organisers: “This project has been accelerated, following feedback from coach drivers at the ‘Great Days Out’ and ‘Best of Britain & Ireland’ exhibitions in March, who said that many companies don’t consider Wrexham Town Centre due to the difficulty parking.

“We expect that demand for using the drop-off point will be slow at first, as many operators will have their itineraries planned for this summer.

“However by Spring 2015, our aim is to have made contact with many of the local and major operators within a 2-hour drivetime of Wrexham to promote the offer. Likewise, there are also plans to do a ‘learning journey’ for operators later this year – to give them a first-hand experience of the offer here in the town centre.”

The Destination Wrexham twitter account has also tweeted the below picture of an advert that is being placed to attracted more coach tours to town:

Here's our #Wrexham Town Centre #coach park advert for @coachtoursuk magazine! Book your visit today 01978 292015 pic.twitter.com/OjQbg2ECVd

— Destination Wrexham (@DestinationWxm) May 21, 2014

We are told the overall ambition of the project is, if this scheme is successful, to establish a permanent, central parking area dedicated to coaches in the future.