All of us within the local tourism industry extend a special thank you to Peter Jones (Jones the Boats) who earlier this month retired after more than 20-years of transporting visitors on the Llangollen Canal & along the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Canal World Heritage Site.
To thank Peter for his contribution to the local tourism industry, he was presented with a special recognition award at the 2019 Go North Wales Tourism Awards held at Venue Cymru this week.
Above; Peter Jones with his award at Venue Cymru, 14th November 2019.
Realising his ambition as an 3-year old local boy to work on the canal, in the last 25-years, Peter Jones has built Jones the Boats into a successful and thriving canal boat business which welcomes thousands of visitors to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Canal World Heritage Site each year.
Above; Peter Jones and son Howard from Jones the Boats on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (image (c) Jamie Ricketts, Shropshire Star).
Peter has ran trips over the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and along the Llangollen canal each day (apart from when the boats are getting a lick of paint over the winter!), delivering wonder and pleasure to the thousands of visitors who come to see the magnificent site near Wrexham.
This has also included numerous television and radio appearances, including Visit Wales adverts and features on shows such as;
ITV Border 'Thomas Telford' with historian Ian Marchant
BBC2 (Wales) 'Border Country' with Iolo Williams and Tess Dunlop
BBC1 'Country File' with John Craven and Michaela Strachan
Flog It!
Thanking Peter upon his retirement, Destination Manager at Wrexham Council Joe Bickerton added; "We were sad to hear that Peter was no longer going to be operating, but after retiring as a teacher and going on to put in more than 20-years service on the canal welcoming thousands of visitors from across the globe, he deserves to (hopefully!) take life a little easier. Peter was a familiar face at Trevor Wharf each day and helped ourselves and Visit Wales facilitate group visits on many occasions. The award last night was just a small thank you from ourselves & Go North Wales for an outstanding contribution to our tourism industry here in North Wales - thank you Peter!"
