On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had

Ross said food tourism was a global phenomenon, referring to Iceland's famous ice cream tours, known as ísbíltúr."Gastro-tourism is booming, also eno-tourism, so wine," he said.

"People [are] going places purely for the food or the drink."What a lovely thing that you can go and support local businesses, hopefully, and eat in the great restaurants and try all of these amazing things."Wales is probably right up there with places that should push this as a big thing."

French-born baker Astrid Roussel, who has lived in Newport, south Wales, for 17 years, said the local food scene had "changed massively" with people willing to pay for "craft" and "quality"."People love to take pictures of pretty flaky pastries," she said.

"Yes, £4 for a croissant is good money to pay but it's an affordable luxury."

Astrid said when she first moved to Wales, finding good pastry was difficult.They had to deal with closures, adapting to virtual performances and keeping on top of costs.

For places like Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon and the Kenton Theatre in Henley-on-Thames, this was made far harder by the high running costs of their old buildings."We had to pretty much shut down for over a year, and you've got to pay all the costs of running the building," said Greg Bensberg, chair of Abingdon Abbey Buildings Trust, which houses the Unicorn.

"We staggered on through there but Covid was really bad."Lottie Pheasant, theatre manager at the Kenton, said the pandemic had nearly brought the venue to its knees.