Wales benefitting from ‘high end television’ tourism and investment boom says BFI report

A report by the British Film Institute has said that Wales has benefitted from a boom in location tourism and investment based around the success of “high end television” shows.

The BFI pointed to Netflix’s Sex Education, which has been filmed around the River Wye, Penarth, Newport and Cwmbran, as well as Margam Castle near Port Talbot, as an example.

The report Screen Business also refers to the BBC’s His Dark Materials series and the film Eternal Beauty, both shot in Wales.

Between 2017 and 2019 series and films shot in Wales were worth £386.3m to Wales’ economy, the report says.

In 2019, 3.4% of the money spent on ‘high end television’ in the UK was spent in Wales, they said, the fifth-highest amount of the UK’s 12 nations and regions. The bulk, 64%, was spent in the London Metro area.

“Recent years have seen increasing amounts of film and HETV [high end television] production taking place outside of the Metro London hub,” the report says.

“There is evidence of particular HETV activity between 2017 and 2019 in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as the North West of England, the South West of England, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

“Spillover impacts – including merchandising, inbound tourism and UK brand promotion – are part of the overall economic contribution delivered by the tax reliefs and are also significant in the revenues and jobs they generate.

“The UK has produced film and television drama with a strong sense of place and culture in recent years.”