Ryan Reynolds’ incredible impact on Wrexham’s tourism earnings revealed four years since taking over football club
FILM star Ryan Reynolds helped treble Wrexham’s tourism earnings in the four years since taking over the football team.
Two million visitors — an increase of 21 per cent — spent around £179million in the Welsh city last year, supporting 1,758 hospitality jobs.
The sum was £49million in 2020 when Deadpool actor Ryan 48, and business partner Rob McElhenney, 47, arrived.
Their Welcome to Wrexham Disney+ documentary has been hailed as driving the boost, covering the side’s back-to-back promotions from the National League to League One.
Joe Bickerton, Wrexham County Borough Council destination manager, said: “The Welcome to Wrexham documentary has acted as a catalyst for many – and the city has stepped up to embrace visitors.
He added: “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.”
The figures show that Wrexham’s tourism revenue is now around £90m higher than 2012.
Joe said: “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.”
They are also launching Wrexham Lager in the US.
Reynolds and fellow funnyman Rob became co-owners of the Wrexham Lager brewery – and will sell cans of the beer to 29 states.
And they hope the historic 140-year-old beer will have better luck than when on its first US crossing – as the only lager to be sold on the doomed first voyage of the Titanic.
The pair have spoken about building a stadium of 55,000-capacity – bigger than Manchester City’s – and have been praised for investing in not only the football club but the former industrial town as well.