LIZ Saville Roberts has insisted UK government politicians visit Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts has used a debate in parliament to promote the significant role the outdoor industry plays in her constituency and its contribution to the wider leisure economy of Wales.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on outdoor recreation, Mrs Saville Roberts invited government ministers to visit Blaenau Ffestiniog ahead of Wales 2016 A Year of Adventure, a campaign to promote Wales as the world’s capital of adventure tourism.

Liz Saville Roberts MP paid tribute to local outdoor leisure providers in Dwyfor and Meirionnydd and called on the government to do more to promote Wales to overseas visitors.

She also repeated her earlier call to reduce VAT on the tourism and hospitality industry, saying failure to do so undermines Wales’ competitive potential.

Liz Saville Roberts MP said: “Wales has first-class mountain biking facilities, not only those managed so ably by Antur Stiniog, but also Coed y Brenin and the Mawddach trail.

“Nefyn golf course, like many of Wales’s outstanding courses, is located on the coast, and plays its part in the golf economy, which contributes almost £38m to Wales.

“I would like to invite the minister and members to visit Blaenau Ffestiniog.

“In Blaenau, a combination of home-grown initiatives and far-sighted investors has excelled in adapting the town’s extraordinary backdrop of former slate quarries into a high-adrenaline adventure landscape, complete with downhill biking trails, zip wires and trampolines spanning cathedral-like caverns.

“The government need to address how best to encourage overseas visitors, and perhaps home visitors too, to venture beyond the capital cities of England and Scotland.

“Search engines need to be able to direct potential visitors to outdoor recreation activities in locations across the UK and encourage people to explore and spread economic value to areas where its impact is proportionately far more significant.

“The adventure, excitement and scenery of Blaenau Ffestiniog need to be accessible to people who do not yet know how to spell the name of the town.

“The prospect of a European referendum that might result in the UK leaving Europe would be disastrous to the Welsh economy as a whole, and also to initiatives such as Antur Stiniog, Plas Heli in Pwllheli and many others.

“Those employment-generating ventures would simply not exist without regional development funding.”