North Wales Tourism consists of 12 non-executive directors who operate or manage tourism businesses. The sectors represented include hotels, farm guesthouses, hostels, self catering, touring caravan parks and visitor attractions. Board meetings are held 4 times per annum February, June, September and November.
NWT Directors
Jim Jones
Position: Managing Director
Ex-Welsh Guardsman Jim Jones is on a new mission to sell North Wales to the world. After leaving the forces he worked in local government - eventually heading up the tourism and communities department at Conwy Council.
Now he has taken the role as Managing Director of North Wales Tourism, the largest destination management organisation in Wales with a growing membership of more than 1,000. He is passionate about working in partnership to promote the region's spectacular landscape, heritage, culture, food and drink, accommodation along with the adventure and family attractions.
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Chris Frost
Position: Chair
Chris Frost is the owner of Manorhaus Ruthin, a Restaurant-with-Rooms, and Manorhaus Llangollen, a B&B. Chris and his partner set-up the Manorhaus in Ruthin some eighteen years ago and they opened their second property in Llangollen in 2012. He has been a Board member of the North Wales International Music Festival, is a former-Chair of Slow Food Llangollen and Ruthin Festival and is currently a North Wales Ambassador for Arts & Business Cymru.He has been a board member of NWT for eight years and Chair for two.
Tanya Keith
Position: Vice-Chair
Tanya has been working at Bangor University over the past 6 years since returning from employment in London, New York and Hampshire. Tanya has a background of facility and property management and customer service delivery roles over the past 23 years working for such organisations in central London as Cluttons, Savilles and Chesterton Lalonde where she developed The Executive Rental Service which offered a “soft landings” programme for overseas executives into the UK to assist with all aspects of relocation. New York then followed with a Realtor Licence to rent/sell lofts in the Metropolitan New York area of the United…
Justin Everley
Position: Director
Justin Everley – Commercial Director - Adventure Parc Snowdonia & Snowdonia Hotel Ltd. Justin is an MBA qualified professional, possessing extensive marketing, management and commercial acumen and experience. In addition to founding and selling several private businesses, Justin has considerable experience in sport and leisure markets and has worked in senior roles in the UK, Australia, Qatar and the UAE. Justin returned to the UK in 2016 to join Surf Snowdonia. Justin has been an integral part of the ongoing development of the business as it has rebranded to Adventure Parc Snowdonia and has been directly involved in the two…
Michael Bewick
Position: Director
Michael sees his role as encouraging working across the tourism sector and keeping a focus on the unique heritage and culture which makes North Wales an appealing destination. He is Chair of the North Wales Tourism Forum which brings together the private sector, local authorities and Government and during the current crisis has represented the region on the Welsh Government Covid-19 Taskforce making the case for the safe reopening of our sector. He has established a Sub Group for the Region which is working to develop a new vision for the future of tourism which is both sustainable and profitable…
Marc Viercant
Position: Director
Marc Viercant is co-owner of the award winning Cae Mor Hotel in Llandudno with his wife Sheryl. Together they have owned and operated 2 hotels in Llandudno over the past 15 years. Prior to this Marc had a well-established career as an hotel General Manager across the UK for several major hotel groups including, Principal Hotels, Thistle hotels and Jarvis Hotels as well as a number of privately owned hotels including Weetwood Hall owned by the University of Leeds and the former Kent based Marston Hotels Group. His career included new build openings, hotel acquisitions, major refurbishments and rebranding as…
Tansy Rogerson
Position: Director
Tansy Rogerson - Tourism Business Development Consultant and Co-founder of Armadillo Events. Tansy’s tourism career began in the Rhyl TIC and over the past 25 years’, she has worked her way across a varied range of tourism and hospitality sectors including leisure, business, events, food and drink tourism, predominately working in the North Wales area. She has a genuine passion for this industry and has gained a breadth of knowledge and experience and over the years has built an excellent, trusted reputation within the North Wales tourism industry as a result. During her career she has supported many award-winning businesses…
Glenn Evans
Position: Director
Glenn Evans, Managing Director Royal Oak Hotel Ltd (Betws-y-Coed) - Glenn returned to the family business after a successful career in London as a Solicitor specialising in medical negligence. Upon his return to Betws-y-Coed in 1997, Glenn initiated a refurbishment and development plan for the company’s flagship hotel The Royal Oak. By masterplanning the site the Royal Oak stood on the company doubled it’s room capacity and added retail areas and a stand alone F&B outlet making it the go-to destination venue in Betws-y-Coed. In 2001 the company acquired the Waterloo Hotel and added Leisure facilities to it’s portfolio. Having…
Frankie Hobro
Position: Director
Frankie Hobro is the Owner and Director of Anglesey Sea Zoo & Marine Resource Centre and she has always been a passionate advocate for conservation and sustainability. Frankie gained years of experience working on hands-on conservation projects with critically endangered species across the globe, often in challenging and isolated conditions, in both terrestrial and marine environments, including island nature reserve and endangered species management and establishing long-term sustainable ecotourism projects. Frankie is specialised in all aspects of eco-tourism, having filled many roles across the spectrum from exclusive private islands to not-for-profit nature reserves, working with elite and high profile guests…
Lucy Miller
Position: Director
Having spent every summer of her childhood in Trearddur Bay and then every summer of her children’s childhoods in Church Bay, it seemed only right that a permanent move to Anglesey should be made. Lucy and John Miller moved to Anglesey in April 2013 with a view to starting a tourism business after completing lengthy research in this field and noting a significant gap in the market. She and her husband chose to play their part in filling this gap by creating a glamping business, providing high specification pods with their own bathrooms. This has been so successful that in…
Adrian Barsby
Position: Director
Having progressed from Porter to General Manager via traditional hotel training after several GM postings throughout England Adrian moved to Wales in 1994 to operate a private company with hotels throughout Great Britain. The company gained benchmark Investor in People status and won Employer of the Year 2002. He chaired North Wales Tourism during transition from being part publicly funded to becoming a private sector company and has been active with Chamber of Commerce, IoD and regional economic development. Was Chair of Wales Tourism Alliance from October 2015 – September 2018 representing the interests of circa 6,000 Welsh Tourism enterprises…
Nicky Williamson
Position: Director
Nicky owns the West Arms in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, together with her husband Mark. She grew up in North Wales before embarking on a varied career with international hospitality companies, both in the UK and globally and has now returned home to North Wales to run ‘a place of their own’. For the most part of her career she has worked for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (now Marriott International) in global leadership roles and with overall responsibility for Europe, Africa and Middle East. Her roles covered specialisms including Hotel operations, Brand development, development of Emerging…
Ruth Higgin
Position: Director
Ruth Higgin, Ty Mawr Tearooms B&B, Llanddeiniolen – I have been in the hospitality industry for many years. For the last 8 years I have run a B & B Tearooms/Restaurant with my husband on the edge of Snowdonia. Having lived in North Wales for 37 years, I realise the importance of tourism and how important growth and development is paramount to the community and us as business owners. In previous years I ran a food oriented Pub and a Catering Company, with a customers like MBNA, M & SFS, Rolls Royce and BMW, then in Sales and Marketing for…