Covid: Clarity call on reopening Wales to tourists

Tourism bosses are seeking a "roadmap" to help the sector to prepare ahead of any decision to reopen in Wales.

It comes after First Minister Mark Drakeford said some sections could open by Easter as long as the Covid-19 situation continues to improve.

One caravan park had 100 bookings on Friday - compared with the usual 25 - after Mr Drakeford's comments.

But another site with customers mostly from north-west England said they seemed cautious about booking ahead.

The Welsh Government said it wants businesses to be open and trading "as soon it is safe to do so".

Wales has been under a level four lockdown since before Christmas with some businesses closed and people ordered to avoid all but essential travel.

Tom Beynon, from Three Cliffs Bay Holiday Park in Gower, said inquiries "went around the bend" on Friday with a lot of customers from Wales looking to holiday closer to home.

He said daily bookings and inquiries at this time of year had already doubled from 25 to 50 but they shot up to 100 on Friday night "due to Mr Drakeford's positivity".

"Is that people reading between the lines that you can go away but [stay] within Wales?" he said.

The park's season traditionally runs between April and October and staff are preparing to reopen as usual "unless told otherwise", said Mr Beynon.

Barmouth mayor, councillor Katie Price, who also owns a B&B in the Gwynedd town, said a "roadmap" was needed so hospitality businesses "know where they stand".

"People may have to make new adaptations to their businesses, but how can they start to put things in place when they have no promise of an income or deadline as to when that needs to be done?" she said.

"The process of reopening has to have full community confidence, so people who live here feel safe, as well as our customers."

She said that tourism was "one of the biggest parts of the economy" in Barmouth and added that "from a business point of view" footfall is needed when hospitality reopens, which should be reflected in travel rules.

Ceri Roberts, from Fron Farm Country Holiday Park, at Hendre, near Mold, Flintshire, said the tourism industry and holidaymakers needed "certainty, definite dates for people to be able to book with confidence".

She said 98% of customers came from over the English border with people "cautious" about booking a place at the site due to differing Covid restrictions last year.

Mrs Roberts said the business had pledged to offer refunds if cancellations were necessary to give customers confidence.

She has also called for guidance about what could be allowed to reopen as campers were unable to book a pitch for a time last year when shared amenity blocks had to remain closed due to Covid rules.

"I'm more positive about taking caravan and static bookings," she said.

Berin Jones, of the Shelbourne Hotel, in Llandudno, was "delighted" by the news there was a possibility of reopening.

"We traded for 10 weeks of last year in the last 12 months," he said.

"It's absolutely essential that all the supporting industries, suppliers and everything else, are able to start planning to reopen and get working again.

"We really need a timetable from (Mark Drakeford) now, we need to understand well in advance when it is he expects to open up campsites, when it is he expects to open up hotels."

Meanwhile, Gwynedd council is planning to hold a summit next month with councillors and Snowdonia National Park Authority officials following "unprecedented" visitors to Snowdon since the pandemic began, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Council leader Dyfrig Siencyn told the education and economy scrutiny committee that such "unsustainable tourism" could not continue to be accommodated.

"I've been personally accused of being anti-tourism despite growing up in a home which was let out as a bed and breakfast, and it's right that we remember it's an important industry for us," he said.

"But the pandemic has perhaps shown we're almost wholly reliant on tourism in rural areas such as Gwynedd and have very little choice, which drives us to create a much more varied economy rather than all our eggs being in one basket."

A Welsh Government spokesman said that restrictions in Wales are kept "under constant review" and it will "always work with sectors to ensure businesses have as much notice as possible" about changes to Covid rules.

"The public health situation is improving thanks to everyone's hard work and sacrifices but we all need to stay at home for a while longer to bring levels of the virus down further."