With tourism and hospitality businesses going through a challenging summer, industry leaders are calling for more co-ordination and collaboration to capitalise on what Wales has to offer.
Speaking to Business News Wales on the Tourism Wales podcast, Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism, described a “flat” season for members, saying advance bookings had been slow and business generally was showing no growth.
Lisa Francis, Policy Advocate with Wales Tourism Alliance, said businesses were seeing a significant drop in operating profit, leading to a real fear that they won’t be able to reinvest for the future.
She described the situation as “really serious” and said the industry was static.
Lisa and Jim highlighted Welsh Government policies including the regulatory change which mandates that furnished holiday lets and self-catering properties must be let for at least 182 days per year to qualify for non-domestic rating.
Failing to meet this threshold subjects property owners to council tax, with premiums in some areas reaching up to 300%.
This policy, designed when the Welsh Government was in a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, aims to increase housing availability by discouraging second home ownership.
Lisa said that threshold may not be a problem for some operators in ‘honeypot’ areas such as Tenby, Beaumaris or Abersoch, but she said that in more remote areas it was proving a difficult target to reach.
She said:
“It’s having an effect on the people who provide services to those businesses. So painters, decorators, small shops, cafes and restaurants, attraction providers. That is a very serious impact that we’re seeing right now and it’s very worrying.
“We would like to see a reversal of that policy. I’m hoping that the new Government at Westminster might influence the Welsh Government.”
Zoe Hawkins, Chief Executive of Mid Wales Tourism, said the perception was that many of the policies and regulations were coming from different departments of Welsh Government, adding that the industry wanted to see better communication and co-ordination between government departments to avoid unintended consequences.
Skills training was another area of concern for the podcast guests, who said that it was exacerbating problems with recruitment and retention.
Frankie Hobro, Director at Anglesey Sea Zoo, said:
“In Europe it’s a huge privilege to work in the industry. And here in the UK, we’ve always struggled with that. People want the service, but a lot of them don’t want to actually work in the industry.”
Infrastructure was also identified as an issue, with Jim saying that even when North Wales Tourism had successfully upskilled and placed candidates in roles sometimes transport was an issue.
Zoe highlighted that when she lived in Australia hospitality businesses in rural locations had organised minibuses for staff. She suggested that Welsh tourism businesses could look elsewhere for examples of best practice which could be adopted.
She added:
“This is our industry, with real people and real families. We all live, work, and raise our kids in the region. We need to work together better as an industry and a nation to find solutions and balance and not have these unintended consequences.”
Jim said:
“No-one else has got what we’ve got in Wales. We’ve looked at other places, and seriously, from our heritage here to our outdoors, from the unique attractions, world class, world first attractions as well, no-one’s got what we’ve got.
“What we need to do is to package that up as a nation, and go out there and promote it the same way as Ireland do, internationally. And that way it will help our economy.”
The profile of Wales as whole could be boosted if tourism businesses, association, local authorities, Visit Wales and Welsh Government all pulled together and became more joined up, said Zoe.
Listen to the full podcast here:
