RICHARD Vaughan and Julie Goodall run the sort of pub that makes American tourists gape in awe and envy.

The Red Lion at Caerleon is a 16th-century coaching inn and therefore encapsulates a hundred or so more years of history than our transatlantic cousins can muster back home.

The Caerleon couple will be banking on this attraction in nine years' time, when Americans will figure heavily in the estimated 90,000 visitors expected to descend on SE Wales for the Ryder Cup.

"I think it is going to bring a lot of trade to Caerleon," said Richard. "The Americans love their history. This is a traditional pub and we already get a few US tourists taking photographs of the inside and outside."

Mr Vaughan also thinks that Caerleon, a former Roman city, will benefit from a surge of interest in its other historical attractions and be part of a much vaster region to reap the harvest of visitor spending.

"There are lots of hotels and accommodation in Caerleon itself and we are only a quarter of an hour away from Cardiff," he said.

"I think there's also plenty of time to deal with the number of visitors. There could even be an airport on the site of Llanwern steelworks by then.

"In ten years' time, too, you will see a change in the licensing laws. We will be more like the Continent and will be just what the Americans are used to."

Although the competition is being held at the Celtic Manor Resort and the hotel is likely to be fully booked during the competition, many visitors will be seeking accommodation in and around Newport.

The Wales Tourist Board expects hotels within a wide radius of the Celtic Manor to be targeted for bookings and to that end organised a briefing attended by 60 hoteliers, many of them from Newport and the rest of Gwent.

Part of the Welsh bid lay in gaining support from people not necessarily interested in golf.

Kath Ringwald, senior economist at the University of Wales College, Newport, said the Celtic Manor already pumped thousands of pounds into the local economy. Landing the Ryder Cup would boost this.

She said an influx of visitors to the Ryder Cup would benefit retailers but there would also be benefits in the long run-up to the 2010 event and for years afterwards.

"It will draw attention to Newport on a global scale and the town has plenty of time to gear up for the Ryder Cup," she said. "I think that Newport, which is very keen to get city status, is capable of rising to the challenge.

"This is all part of Newport's optimism, so it is coming at a good time. The planning for the event will already have started and that will have implications from now until 2010.

"For the next nine years, Newport will be recognised around the world as the place that is going to stage the Ryder Cup and will benefit from this raised profile. People from across the board may well want to be associated with the town for that reason."

Calvin Jones, of Cardiff Business School, said the Ryder Cup offered Wales the chance to capitalise on long-term tourism.