In the post war period there has been a large move towards the provision of facilities for tourism and leisure in the Swansea Bay City area. Since the Second World War, a new service based economy has risen in place of the derelict coal mining and metal smelting areas which have been a part of the old industrial economy. Tourism is of great importance to the local economy, with 30% of those employed in the service industry in the distribution, hotel and restaurant sector.
In Swansea itself, much of the redeveloped South Dock is given over to tourism and leisure. This began in 1977 with the completion of Swansea Leisure Centre. In addition, a marina was developed along with a maritime industrial museum, and visitor oriented shopping facilities. There are further plans for leisure related development in this area with the redevelopment of the Oystermouth bus station site. Between Mumbles, a popular tourist location and Swansea there is extensive tourist provision. The former railway line has been resurfaced and is now a cycle/walking track which goes through the Clyne Valley Country Park.
Another example of the success of the service based economy within Swansea is the Gower Peninsula, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is one of the region’s principal tourist destinations. While much of the area has been protected from tourist and housing development, there has been extensive development in Oystermouth and Mumbles, and there are numerous caravan sites. The area is under considerable pressure from tourism, as reflected in the number of visitors and traffic congestion in summer.
By 1998, the economy of Swansea Bay City was dominated by services which accounts for 80% of employment in the area, compared to the 1900s when it is likely less than 20% were employed within this area of services to the general public. As well as the expansion of service based employment, the geography of services in the conurbation has undergone significant change in the post war period. These changes affected financial and legal services, maintenance and repair services, public services and retailing. Maintenance and repair services, including car sales and servicing, together with wholesaling and storage depots have shifted to the new Industrial Estates and Business Parks.
Public services are also now a much more obvious part of the economic landscape as a result of the post-war construction of schools, hospitals, leisure centres and sports facilities. This sector is the largest service based employer, with 42% of those employed in services in the area employed in Public Administration, Health and Education.
While the service sector has undergone significant change in the post war period, it is the retailing sector that has been the most affected. All of the older major shopping centres underwent redevelopment, with the town centres of Port Talbot and Llanelli developed in the 1970s.
The commercial core of Swansea was the High Street, which links the railway station to the docks; this was until the city centre was destroyed by bombing in 1940. In the 1945 the City Council bought most of the city centre and the process of rebuilding started in the 1950s. In the 1970s the city centre was redeveloped and the central shopping area was extended south from the eastern end of Oxford Street to the Quadrant Centre. This acted to shift the commercial core of Swansea from the High Street south west.
To conclude, I think that the move from an industrial base to a service based economy has been successful. The transition was not intentional but merely a result of a number of outside factors which included the Second World War and the fact that there was regional decline in other places across the country, as employment within tertiary industries was better paid and had better benefits. The reclamation and redevelopment of Swansea has been very successful in the post war period, with funding from the local government and agencies across the UK. The economy seems to have grown with the addition of new schools, hospitals and leisure/tourist facilities. The derelict buildings from metal smelting are now used for car sales and repairing as part of a local industrial estate. Alongside this, the Docks have been refurbished to accommodate tourist facilities. Overall the transition from a secondary industrial economy to a tertiary based economy has been rather successful.
