A bold plan has been unveiled to turn tourism in Conwy county into an all year round industry and generate up to £1bn.

The thrust of the plan is to alter the structure of Conwy’s economy and encourage growth tourism over 12 months.

Jon Merrick, Conwy’s business and tourism development manager, told Llandudno Town councillors: “Tourism in the county is worth £839 million a year now, and our target is to grow this to £1 billion by 2020.

“In the summer tourism does very well, but the challenge is to develop it further.

“To illustrate the point we have 1.7 million visitors in August and only a tenth of that in January.

“To develop winter tourism we have to look at a number of initiatives to attract people here for example: the Christmas offer, events and festivals, winter lights, the wet weather offer, what is available for food, drink and accommodation, and then promote and market all of this as a package to potential visitors nationally and internationally.”

Mr Merrick revealed Venue Cymru had ideas to attract visitors while there were plans to light up Llandudno’s buildings to launch the “winter offer” next year.

”But the key element will be events and festivals to give people a reason to come here. But clearly Llandudno features large in our proposals, as does Conwy town.”