Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney turn Wrexham into a tourism hotspot with £179m spending boom driven by hit documentary

Upon their arrival in 2021, when a stunning takeover was completed, two Hollywood superstars decided to bring television cameras with them. Welcome to Wrexham has become an Emmy-award winning production, with the Red Dragons’ global fan base growing as a result.

Interest in Wrexham, not just their famous co-owners, is soaring. That is doing wonders for the travel trade in North Wales, with two million visitors passing through the city in the last 12 months. The Sun claims that they spent around £179m.

That figure stood at just £49m ($62m) in 2020, prior to Reynolds and McElhenney’s arrival. They have been enjoying a remarkable adventure on and off the field, with back-to-back promotions being complemented by the growth of businesses in the local area.

Joe Bickerton, Wrexham County Borough Council destination manager, has said of the impact made by Reynolds and McElhenney: “The Welcome to Wrexham documentary has acted as a catalyst for many - and the city has stepped up to embrace visitors. People might come because they’ve seen certain aspects on the documentary or they might now be interested to see what Wrexham is all about.”

He went on to add: “Last year we were the best-performing local authority in Wales for visitor growth. We see 21% as an anomaly, we usually see growth of 5 or 6 per cent.”

Reynolds and McElhenney are now looking to take Wrexham Lager to the United States, having completed a buyout of that iconic brewery, while there has been talk of a 55,000-seater stadium being constructed at some stage as the most ambitious of clubs takes aim at the Premier League.