Thirty new jobs have been created at a trailblazing adventure centre in North Wales where staff perks include free accommodation at a plush Hilton hotel.
It’s among a raft of extra fringe benefits at Adventure Parc Snowdonia, in Dolgarrog, Conwy, which are designed to help the workforce combat the cost of living crisis.
The team can also enjoy free surf sessions and take advantage of a 25 per cent discount on food and other activities.
And when they go on holiday themselves they can benefit from discounts of up to 80 per cent when they stay at any other Hilton hotel anywhere in the world.
The vacancies in Dolgarrog are across all areas of the business, including the adventure activities, housekeeping, restaurants and other food and beverage operations.
The centre revolutionised adventure tourism when it opened as Surf Snowdonia in 2015, creating the world’s first inland surf lagoon in the picturesque surroundings of the Conwy Valley.
A total of £25 million of investment has seen the centre add a host of other high-octane activities, including paddle boarding, ziplines, climbing and indoor caving.
As a result, the centre was rebranded as Adventure Parc Snowdonia.
Guests can slow down and unwind at the 106-room Hilton Garden Inn which opened last year and also has a luxury spa overlooking the lagoon.
Recruitment is now underway as the adrenaline-fuelled complex looks to welcome around 100,000 visitors this year.
Along with Zip World, it has cemented North Wales’s reputation as the adventure capital of Europe.
Iwan Phillips, 29, originally from Llandrillo, near Corwen in Denbighshire, worked there for a year as a lifeguard after the centre first opened seven years ago.
The talented rugby player has now returned as digital marketing manager after a spell playing the game semi-professionally in Hong Kong.
He said: “Adventure Parc Snowdonia is a really special place and I get to combine my own passion and enjoyment for the outdoors, surfing, with a career and job and working alongside globally significant brands.
“The centre has developed an offering that’s continuing to evolve and is now a flagship for adventure, leisure, outdoor pursuits that people can enjoy together.
“The setting is stunning and a complete contrast to the bustling city environment I’ve been in for five years.
“For me this is the perfect balance, combining the outdoors and building a career with a business that’s really ambitious and competing nationally and globally with a team that’s really dedicated to delivering that.
“It’s a fantastic place to work and I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone, especially with all these brilliant fringe benefits.
“Staff being able to stay for free at the hotel if needed is definitely a great perk, alongside the wider benefits we get through Hilton of being able to travel overseas with a staff rate which can be about a 70 to 80 per cent reduction on the cost which is amazing.”
Managing director Andy Ainscough is aiming to recruit locally as much as possible.
He said: “We’re very aware that the cost of living crisis is making life tough for everybody, with the price of fuel and food going through the roof, so we decided to do what we can to help our staff ride out this current financial storm.
“That’s why we have come up with what is hopefully an attractive package of perks and we are conducting a salary review.
“We can also offer a great team spirit and great career prospects for people with the right attitude.”
His father Martin Ainscough CBE, chairman of the Ainscough Group of companies of which Adventure Parc Snowdonia is a part, said: “Our vision is to transform the centre into an all-year-round facility by tapping into the corporate market, particularly in the shoulder months outside the summer season.
“Wherever possible, we always want to recruit locally and we have now reached the point where 90 per cent of our staff on the adventure side of the business are from North Wales.
“This site is unique are we have exciting plans for further development which will make Adventure Parc Snowdonia an even more exciting destination and help us make an even bigger contribution to the local economy.”
