American couple’s Reddit thread brought to life to tempt visitors to spend extra time in Wrexham

Guest article by Visit Wales...

When Arizona resident David Weber and his wife Allison took to Reddit to share ‘an absolute highlight experience of our lives’ spent on holiday in Wrexham, they did so in a show of community inspired by the friendly locals they met in the Welsh city- and now Visit Wales has turned their tale into a short film to inspire more visitors to discover the area.

With the fourth season of Welcome to Wrexham streaming across the world since May social network Reddit is abuzz with fans discussing the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney show.

Visit Wales is advertising on Disney+ around the sports docuseries and as part of its wider campaign to target users of Reddit, a lively conversation based social media platform with users around the world, uncovered a thread from an American couple’s experience travelling to Wrexham as fans of the show.

Despite a scheduling mishap that meant the couple missed seeing a Wrexham game in person, they embraced the situation by watching a match in The Turf, a local pub that features heavily in the TV series and chatting with friendly locals.

In he conversation thread on Reddit the couple mention how many people were surprised by their holiday choice, asking ‘why are you going to Wrexham?’

However, the couple’s wholly positive experiences in and around the city builds on a burgeoning trend for ‘set-jetting’- where travellers seek out TV and film themed destinations around the world.

The Reddit platform is also a growing travel trend, with Visit Wales’ own data showing there were 300k Reddit users across 13 selected US states actively searching for Wrexham content and engaging with relevant Wrexham communities on the platform in May 2025.

The Visit Wales campaign brings David’s Reddit thread to life through a real-time film, recreating the layout of the Reddit site and user comments through graphics and highlighting key extracts to capture the couple’s journey of Wrexham and showcasing the hidden gems of the surrounding area on their visit to Wales.

The voiceover is narrated by the original poster, BluePotato00, David’s username on the site.

The Welcome to Wrexham effect is clear. Since the show first aired in 2022, tourism revenue into the north Wales city is up 20 per cent year on year* and almost 50 per cent on five years previous. But as the thousands of visitors inspired to visit have discovered, there’s much more than 90 minutes of football to experience on a trip to Wrexham.

Visitors from the US, Canada, Australia and more have visited Wrexham (which was granted city status as part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations) thanks to the spark of the show. Many of the major sights of the surrounding areas have benefitted from the ‘Rob and Ryan’ influence too, including the UNESCO World Heritage site, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the National Trust stately home, Erddig and the former indoor market turned indie food and arts space, Tŷ Pawb.

Speaking about his trip to Wrexham, David said: I watched the documentary Welcome to Wrexham and ten minutes into the first episode my wife and I became smitten with the town, its people and its football club. I don’t say this lightly, but watching a match at The Turf was the experience of a lifetime. Wrexham has earned our support for life and I hope to return in the future. When friends are travelling to the UK, it will be the first place I recommend they add to their itinerary.”

Speaking about the Reddit campaign XX said:

“In a marketing age where AI driven campaigns continue to dominate, Visit Wales has opted instead for the power of human connections to spearhead this partnership and its 2025 campaign; inviting worldwide visitors to ‘feel the hwyl’ in Wales.”

Hwyl – pronounced ‘hoo-eel’- has no direct translation in English and multiple interpretations, the most popular broadly meaning a deep state of joy that comes from being totally immersed in the moment.

Its definition means hwyl can be found in situations which mean the most to the individual or group, whether that’s exploring a forest canopy with friends, stargazing under dark skies in an outdoor tub next to a special someone, dancing the day and night away at a music festival, switching between a sauna and the surf on the beach, being in the stands for an unmatchable sporting moment or taking to the air in a hot air ballon as the green fields and castles roll underneath you.