Overseas visitors give Royal Welsh international flavour
The Royal Welsh Show enhanced its growing reputation as an attraction for overseas visitors when 696 people from 40 countries signed in at the showground’s International Pavilion for the 2011 event at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.
In recent years the Royal Welsh, the best attended agricultural show in Britain, has acquired an increasingly international flavour, even attracting the occasional European competitor to its Welsh Pony classes.
The spectacular display of Welsh Ponies and Cobs has for years drawn hundreds of enthusiasts from abroad, many of whom are themselves breeders of these beautiful native animals of Wales.
Overseas visitors travel to the show from such distant places as the Falkland Islands, and from Australia and New Zealand, who arrive at Llanelwedd in large numbers. Their main interest is in livestock, particularly sheep, and since the Royal Welsh stages the largest display of sheep breeds in the world, there is much for them to see.
The biggest contingent from overseas this year, however, came just across the sea from Ireland. Irish farmers have found the Royal Welsh an interesting show to visit and recently they have been arriving in growing numbers. This year there were 130 Irish visitors.
Other countries high on the visiting list included Holland (110), New Zealand (108) and Australia (69). There were 34 from the United States, including two representatives from the US Department of Agriculture, while visitors from many of the European countries reached double figures.
African countries were also widely represented at the show and provided what were probably the most colourful group – three white-turbaned Tuaregs from the fabled city of Timbuktu on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
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