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Covid: Tourist tax idea mooted for Snowdonia visitors

Gary Maslin The summer has seen huge crowds of people flocking to SnowdoniaGary Maslin
The summer has seen huge crowds of people flocking to Snowdonia

A tax on visitors to Snowdonia National Park has been suggested as a way of making tourism in the area sustainable.

It follows crowds flocking to Snowdonia as coronavirus travel restrictions led people to holiday in the UK.

The park's engagement officer Helen Pye said there was an "opportunity for Wales to look at different ways of doing tourism".

The Welsh Government said national parks had received an extra £800,000 to deal with the effects of Covid-19.

Calls have been made for increased funding for national parks following chaotic scenes over the summer.

Ms Pye said: "I think for a long time now we've just measured the benefits of tourism rather than looking at what the impacts are too and what the costs are too.

"I think there a lot of different models in Europe - they use different things like a tourism levy or tax where the visitor essentially pays back into the local economy to benefit thing like the cost of tourism."

Traffic Wales Double yellow lines on the A5 in SnowdoniaTraffic Wales
More than 180 cars were fined for illegal parking in Snowdonia in one day in July

The huge increase in visitor numbers to Snowdonia during lockdown saw hundreds of cars parked on narrow mountain roads.

Peter Rutherford, access, health and wellbeing officer for the park, said more than 100 people had volunteered to help during its busiest period.

"It's hit us so hard and so fast - we've never come across something like this before and that's because of the number of people," he said.

More than 500 cars were parked along the roads in Snowdonia

Plaid Cymru wants more funding to be given to the three national parks - Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coats - to ensure they can invest in staff and deal better with the huge volume of extra visitors.

The party's North Wales Member of the Senedd, Llyr Gruffudd, said: "The parks don't have the financial certainty to be able to invest in staff and volunteers like they should."

A Welsh Government spokesman said on top of the £800,000 provided, £4.7m has been allocated "for national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty to introduce changes, such as switching to electric vehicles and decarbonising visitor centres, to improve sustainability in the long term".