How an Independent Wales will do it better  4

Tourism and hospitality.

Wales has much to offer in terms of tourism, but it doesn’t do it particularly well.

Wales attracts fewer international tourists, than any UK nation or region bar the North East of England.

It raises less from tourist spending than any other part of the UK and Ireland.

The Welsh government lauds the tourist sector as important and a major contributor to the Welsh economy adding, it says, £3.8 billion to Wales GVA.

It is argued that Wales needs tourism and tourist spending.

Is this the case and is tourism good for Wales?.

The first thing to say is that Wales as a nation does not exist for the benefit of tourists.

Wales as a nation is the place of residence for its people and for their welfare and wellbeing.

If the nation wishes to develop leisure and hospitality it should, in the first place, be for the benefit of its people, above that it is business, economic gain.

Economic gain to Wales.

So is it, as the Welsh government claims, such a vital  part of the Welsh economy.

The data for ‘ tourism ‘ has a wide base.

The government includes visitors to Wales, hospitality, the food and beverage sector, sporting and musical events and more.

What the data does show, is that the sector is run on a low wage basis

150000 employed in the sector.

The median wage for ‘ tourism ‘ is only just over two thirds of the Welsh median wage.

The data showed £10.21 per hr against £14 82 per hr.

But as long as they are helping towards the £3.8 billion economic gain , then that's alright

.

Well it isn’t and they don’t.

This figure is based on a GB overnight visitor spend of £1.89 billion, plus £430 million international visitors.

Then there is the day visitors spend for leisure of £2.3 billion.

Over £4.6 billion

So Wales needs tourism!

Or does it

The figures, although significant, are misleading.

Approximately 20 % of the overnight stays and 60 % of the day trips were by Wales residents.

Therefore, on a uniform spending basis. ££464 million of overnight spending and £1.38 billion of day trip spending was by Welsh residents.

Welsh residents account for £1.8 billion of the spending in one part of Wales rather than another.

Tourists from outside Wales spending  in reality. £2.8 billion.

Who benefits from this ‘ spend ‘?

There are 150,000 employed in this sector.

However, as shown, they are the nation’s lowest paid.

There is therefore, minimal tax revenues for a Welsh exchequer.

Minimal disposable income from this sector to grow the Welsh economy.

Day trip visitors account for a significant number of tourists.

 40% of these are from outside Wales.

They are enticed by Wales' environment, beaches, mountains, lakes and attractions.

They bring their picnics, enjoy the scenery and head home.

 

The average day trip leisure spend of £37

Then there are the overnight stays.

Many go with their tourers or tents to the many small sites located on farms, farms diversifying.

However if these revenues have been counted to agriculture, to the farm accounts, they cannot then be allocated to tourism. Double counting.

Another large proportion will stay in the caravan and leisure parks of which Wales has many.

The largest, self contained, with entertainment, restaurant, shops onsite and access to beaches., ensuring that spending largely remains in house.

The largest of these sites in Wales, including Trecco Bay, KIln Park and Ty Mawr, are owned by two companies. Parkdean and Haven.

That’s Parkdean of Canada and Haven of New York USA.

A little over 30% of tourists visit the S,E. Wales, mainly Cardiff.

There they overnight stay in one the the variety of hotels in the city.

The Marriott [ HQ,Maryland USA ]

The Hilton [ HQ,Virginia USA ]

Travelodge [ HQ,Delaware USA ]

Radisson [ HQ, Minnesota USA ]

Park Plaza [ under licence from Radisson ]

Or they stay

Mercure [ French owned ]

Novatel [ French owned ] 

Ibis [ French owned ]

Coppthorne [ Singapore ]

Hotel Indigo.

Holiday Express

Or if really flushed.

Voco St Davids.

These are owned by IHG hotel group, itself  80% owned by an international financial investment group.

Over 300,000 tourists visit one of Wales newest activity attractions Zip World

Zip World was the brainchild of a Welsh Leisure group.

It is now owned by a financial investment group, with HQ in the Virgin Islands tax haven.

The above examples illustrate that even the modest tourists spend in Wales is not to the advantage of Wales, but the foreign owners of large parts of Welsh tourism, with the UK government giving them an advantageous tax rate to do so.

How will an Independent Wales do tourism better?

We start by recognising that more isn’t better.

Just as the present Wales government believes the more jobs the better.

So they believe that the more tourists the better.

Its the type of job that's important

So too with tourists.

Wales has too many tourists.

Wales tourism needs to be better organised.

The Welsh public were aggrieved when the speed limit was lowered to 20 mph.

There are many parts of Wales which would be delighted if they could get up to that speed,

They are gridlocked by tourists.

The arguments against the 20mph setting was that it would affect business, lengthen the time for deliveries, slow services.

Many areas of Wales experience these issues due to tourism.

Y Wyddfa [ Snowden ] in particular and Eryri [ Snowdonia ]  in general are examples of the problem, although many other tourist spots in Wales suffer similarly.

Pen y Fan mountain in South Wales also has more visitors than either Ben Nevis in Scotland or Skaffel Pike, the highest mountain in England.

To see the extent of the problem a comparison between Eryri and the Scottish Highlands is useful.

The Scottish highlands, a larger area than Eryri has an average visitor spend of £90 per head.

Eryri has an average visitor spend of £17 per head.

The difference is that The Highlands attract many more staying visitors than Eryri.

The central attraction to Eryri, Y Wddfa, is a particular problem.

Y Wyddfa is not designed as a tourist attraction, it’s a mountain.

It didn’t come with ready made car parks or convenient access roads and its  popularity is causing increasing problems for local communities and the environment.

In Scotland there are concerns about visitor numbers to their biggest mountain attraction, Ben Nevis.

They are examining the feasibility of a permit system similar to that used by the National Parks in America.

Ben Nevis gets 120,000 visits per year compared to Y Wyddfa at 700,000 per year.

Councillors in Eryri also considered some payment system to control visitor numbers, however their powers in that  respect are limited.

So it remains the case at present as one warden put it. Visitors come, climb the mountain, eat their packed lunches, throw the litter on the mountain and head off home.

How is it to be dealt with?

The type of tourism presently in Wales, cheap and convenient, is deeply embedded, change won’t be easy.

Ownership of tourism may be in foreign ownership, but in that ownership legitimately

Wales, a land of many attractions, will always be a destination for visitors.

However a sovereign Wales will have the ability to at least mitigate and control tourism more effectively than at present.

Wales has too many tourists and they don’t spend,

There should be a stop [ and ultimate reduction ] in large scale caravan and leisure parks development. .

They are largely owned outside Wales and that’s where the profit goes.

They employ low paid staff and the nature of the sector will see little voluntary change.

They spend little into the local economy outside the site.

Scotland, almost four times the size of Wales, has a lower number caravan and leisure parks

In order to mitigate, a sovereign Wales will ensure that existing sites pay fair tax revenues and costs to the Welsh exchequer. Not the special reduced rates the UK government presently allows foreign owners.

Increased wage levels in this sector, at least to the Wales average must be ensured.

Day trippers are another area of concern.

Tourism day trips to Wales totalled 53.25 million in 2024

In the same period tourism day trips to Scotland totalled 76.8 million, 50% more

Those however to a county four times larger.

Even the Scottish cities have more space

Cardiff, for example, has its 500,000 [ approximately ] population in an area of 140 Km2

Edinburgh, has its 500,000 [ approximately ] population in an area of 264 Km2, almost double.

Wales has too many tourists in too small a country.

The cheap and convenient Wales tourist image will need to be discouraged by charging and pricing measures and controls.

This is not isolationist, it is realism and common sense.

It will be argued that many areas depend on tourism.

That however is a failure of government industrial and economic policies, leaving communities dependent on a single, low paid and often seasonal enterprise base.

Wales will still attract tourists, it has much to offer.

The tourism of the future should be targeted at less, but high value tourists, spending in hotels, guest houses, restaurants and bars.

More locally owned chargeable activities. 

The reversal starts with marketing

The thrust of the present approach is to visit Wales because it's cheap. Wales has all these fantastic mountains and beaches and they are free.

Wales' present spending on tourism advertising is less than is spent by Glasgow.

An enhanced budget should be targeted at high value visitors.

The attraction of Wales' natural environment, but part of a staying package extolling the virtues of Welsh culture,festivals, the uniqueness of the language, food, drink hotels and of course the many castles.

But not free.

Many countries particularly in Europe are discovering the cost of over tourism and seeking ways to restrict it.

The fact that they belong to a common union complicates this, with different countries having different rules.

Beaches in particular. Some requiring payment, some free to roam..

In the UK, including Wales, the conception is that beaches are public spaces, free to roam.

There is no legal public right of access to the country’s beaches.

Other than those who are privately owned, the rest are owned by the Crown Estate, National Trust, or Local Authorities.

When Wales becomes a sovereign state. they will belong to the nation.

That being the case Wales will have the ability to impose restrictions on numbers from outside Wales, perhaps by the use of passes and permits.

Mountains in Wales will require different protections.

Presently the paths up Y Wyddfa are a public right of way

There is free and unrestricted access

So where is this spending to justify the disruption and wear to the environment.

Not to Llanberis, the village subject to most disruption, being at the base of a popular route.

As one resident described it..They arrive in their thousands, Climb the mountain day and night. get in their cars and minibuses and leave. The disruption and clean up left behind. Any spending is small scale.

This scenario is common throughout the National Park.

Of those tourists staying, over 60% are self catering, almost 10% caravans and camping and almost 20%  AirBrB.

Only 8% stay in serviced accommodation, hotels and guest houses

The solution.

Either restrict the numbers, reducing the disruption and wear.

or

Develop the area and villages as high value tourism. The villages as tourist centres as in the mountain areas of  Europe, where local people can be fully involved and have the advantage of higher spending.

Wales presently is a cheap and convenient tourist destination

Most visitors from outside Wales are on short break or day trips, a small minority using it as a main holiday.

Of those staying visitors most on self catering stays.

To maximise Wales tourism needs a rethink

It also needs investment.

One of the main criticisms restraining the high value tourism, is Wales poor internal transport links.

The West coast railway line linking South to North Wales and offering a picturesque journey is incomplete.

What could be offered as a significant holiday package to American and European tourists, A couple of nights in the capital, a train journey the length of Wales, stopping along the coastal resorts of West Wales for a couple of nights and then on to Eryri [ Snowdonia }.

What an attraction to sell to high spending international visitors.

A common type of package on the continent and even to Scotland and Ireland.

But it can’t be done in Wales because there’s a length of railway line missing

The line between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth was closed by Dr Beeching and remains closed.

Some studies regard reopening as not financially feasible.

There would not, it is argued, be enough domestic passengers.

That is however to ignore its part of a public service, its linking the North and South of Wales and, if marketed properly, its potential for tourism.

The headline figure for spending on tourism is misleading.

It hides the costs of tourism to local communities in cleanup costs, the disruption to local communities and local non tourist businesses.

With so much of Welsh tourism and hospitality in foreign ownership, much of the spend is lost to Wales.

It is a sector that only profits due to low wage employment.

For tourism in Wales to be justified it will need significant change.

Change that can only be done by a sovereign state.

Next up.

Public Services as an economic generator.