Tom Giffard is the Welsh Conservative Member of the Senedd for South Wales West and Shadow Minister for Tradition, Tourism and Sport.
In December 2018, after 52 years, the tolls on the 2 Severn bridges had been scrapped by Alun Cairns, the then-Secretary of State, delivering on Welsh Conservative pledge to make sure we open up Wales to the remainder of the UK.
In truth, tolls on the Severn estuary had been in place for almost 800 years in numerous kinds!
The influence on the Welsh financial system is big, with studies on the time predicting that the enhance can be value nicely over £100 million a 12 months.
However I worry that after once more Labour in Wales are discovering new methods to carry again our financial system and put jobs underneath menace.
The opposite week the Mark Drakeford, the First Minister, insisted that Labour and Plaid’s tourism tax must be referred to as a ‘customer levy’. He went on to say that: “it isn’t simply folks coming to Wales for tourism functions; the levy will apply to guests for different causes as nicely.”
What on earth does this imply? Charging folks to go to their aunt in Rhyl, maybe? Or paying an additional tenner on the border when individuals are coming to look at rugby at Principality Stadium?
Pressing readability is required from the First Minister on what this implies. Is he about to revive a 800-year-old tax that we Welsh Conservatives did away with? Labour have already got plans to introduce further costs for driving on Welsh roads or for parking at your office. The place does it finish?
Wales is a proud nation and an excellent place for tourism. But it’s underneath fixed assault from the Labour authorities right here in Wales.
To not do the job of Go to Wales, however we’ve got a implausible vary of areas and sights for every type of holidaymakers, from our nationwide parks and AONBs in Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons, and the Gower peninsula to our historic castles – extra per sq. mile than another a part of the world.
There isn’t any doubt that the pandemic was extraordinarily tough for tourism companies. It could have been even worse if not for the nationwide Conservative Authorities’s furlough scheme, which was massively vital and stored many livelihoods and companies going.
However with the ending of restrictions and the summer season coming, there ought to have been large causes for optimism.
Sadly, these hopes have been dashed. Because of Labour, individuals who run vacation lets, B&Bs, and different companies are left worrying concerning the future as a substitute of having the ability to give attention to the current.
So, why are they anxious? It’s not simply the specter of Labour’s ‘customer levy’; it’s the assault on self-catering lodging as nicely. If premises don’t attain an 182-day threshold, then council tax premiums can be set at a whopping 300 per cent from April 2023.
This can result in the destruction of many companies, a lot of that are family-run and primarily based in those self same communities. It should possible see large job losses – particularly devastating when round one in seven Welsh jobs depends on the tourism business.
Numerous the speak on the Royal Welsh Agricultural Present lately (the most important in Europe and one other occasion underneath menace from Labour’s tax crazed concepts) was about how that is an acute betrayal of rural communities.
Farmers have been informed by Cardiff Bay to diversify through the use of their smallholdings to generate income such by renting them as vacation lets – and now they’re being punished for doing it!
It’s only the Welsh Conservatives standing up for our tourism and rural communities. Final month I fought to annul these reckless and ill-thought out rules. Unsurprisingly, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems continued to betray the agricultural communities they declare to signify.
That seventh of Welsh jobs that depend on tourism are an enormous a part of our financial system. The results of a decline in customer numbers and the closing down of tourism companies can be felt proper throughout Wales.
A UK-wide survey of the sector in April 2021 by organisations together with the Skilled Affiliation of Self-Caterers UK discovered that over 46 per cent of respondents have both had indicators of issues with their psychological well being or are experiencing some type of nervousness or despair.
Remember the fact that would have been earlier than Covid restrictions had been totally ended and earlier than these tourism insurance policies had been introduced; I can’t think about what that bleak image seems like right this moment.
The explanations cited for these measures are the problem of second houses in communities the place there aren’t sufficient homes. Frankly, these anti-tourist measures received’t remedy the problem and can really drive funding and jobs away from the areas the place holidaymakers go, particularly our rural and coastal communities.
I do have a novel concept for Labour and their Plaid allies: if you wish to remedy the housebuilding disaster, then crack on and really construct some homes.
However as a substitute, they’re at the moment constructing round a 3rd of the quantity needed. And our tourism sector is now having to pay the worth for the Welsh Authorities’s failures.
I would like folks to go to Wales and luxuriate in all the pieces that we’ve got to supply, and I encourage readers to go to.
However accomplish that whilst you can, as a result of Labour in Wales are doing all the pieces of their energy to maintain guests away from the inexperienced, inexperienced grass of dwelling.
