During Economy Questions in the Senedd, Labour’s Deputy Minister
with responsibility for tourism, , hailed the success of the
Welsh Government’s approach to tourism, saying:
“Between April and December 2021 and April and December 2022,
there was an increase of 13% in the volume of trips taken.”
Commenting on the exchange, Welsh Conservative Shadow Tourism
Minister, said:
“This frankly embarrassing defence from the Deputy Minister will
only serve to highlight the atrocious lack of ambition from the
Labour Government to improve visitor numbers to Wales by
comparing recent figures with Covid-era statistics from 2021,
when social distancing was in place, we were restricted to groups
of six and Covid passes were required for indoor events.
“Labour are clutching at straws and cherry picking the statistics
to justify their industry hampering policies. A tourism tax might
be right for Bordeaux and Venice, but Wales deserves a Welsh
Government intent on enhancing tourism, not taxing it into
oblivion. I gave the Labour Deputy Minister an opportunity to
clarify whether her levy would be used for tourism improvements,
but she failed to give a direct answer.
“After the Deputy Minister visited Bluestone, they came out
stating that this policy will harm business – she clearly failed
to convince them. Labour’s Tourism Minister has clearly lost the
confidence of the industry, yet she has no intention of changing
course. Only the Welsh Conservatives will scrap the toxic tourism
tax and bring forward an alternative tourism strategy to boost
the sector here in Wales.”
ENDS
Note to editors:
Link to the exchange can be found here.
The Welsh Conservative Alternative Tourism Strategy: a
positive alternative for Welsh Tourism includes:
· Freeing Welsh tourism
by making Visit Wales independent of the Welsh Government.
· Creating regional visitor
passes for local attractions to boost local economies.
· A plan for promoting
heritage and speciality tourism offers, such as sport and faith.
· Listening
to businesses by scrapping Labour’s toxic tourism tax and
cutting the self-catering accommodation regulation threshold to
105 days.
· Upskilling the industry for
the future with a Tourism and Hospitality Academy.
· Specific offers for
different international markets in different languages.
· Proactively capitalising
on major events and Wales as a filming location to encourage
new visitors.
· Explore and trial a pilot
tax free shopping scheme for international tourists coming to
Wales.
