Regional Spotlight: Cardiff

The hospitality scene in Europe's youngest capital, Cardiff, has experienced a boom in recent years, helped by the opening of the Millennium Stadium, which has attracted events like the FA Cup to the city.

The stadium has attracted a lot of first-time visitors to the city and generated a lot of business for local operators, helping the city's hoteliers consistently outperform their peers elsewhere in the country.

According to Tony Nicholas, managing partner of Knight Frank (Wales), there are still good opportunities for operators in the city due to the lack of high-end and tailored independent establishments. Nicholas says a lot of the recent hospitality development has been "formulaic", based around chain offerings.

The majority of the city's roomstock is also in the budget bracket, leaving opportunities at the high end and for niche players.

In recent years there has been an explosion in mixed-use developments, especially in the Cardiff Bay area around Mermaid's Quay and the Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village. But while this has created lots of opportunities for bar and restaurant operators, the Bay developments continue to struggle, due in part to their distance from the city centre.

In the centre, a number of old office buildings have been converted to hotels, residential use or mixed use. And in 2008 the existing St David's shopping centre will be joined by the 1,000,000sq ft St David's 2 centre.

The area round the bus station is also "crying out for redevelopment", says Nicholas, and he expects to see more mixed-use opportunities in the city's office blocks and in the business parks on the outskirts.