The Challenge Facing Pembrokeshire’s Tourism Industry

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By Ben Cottam, Head of External Affairs, FSB Wales

The Coronavirus crisis is throwing a huge number of challenges at businesses and as the weeks go by, these challenges come from unexpected places. In conversations, I’ve previously likened it to the fairground game ‘whack-a-mole’ – as soon as we think one challenge is being addressed, another pops up. In this sense, in my work at FSB, there is a feeling of fighting the current crisis on many fronts.

One particular issue which is developing daily, is the challenge to the tourism economy and its businesses and the impacts on places such as Pembrokeshire. At any normal time, we would be celebrating the start of the season and tourists would be flocking to the County, generating vital income for businesses in the County. This year, that’s clearly not yet happened and there’s huge uncertainty as to when that might happen at all.

Tourism businesses and other seasonal businesses obviously make the vast majority of their income in the spring and summer months. A good season allows them to survive the much quieter autumn and winter months. Should restrictions be lifted sufficiently to allow those businesses to trade, what we know is that at the very least, the season will be shortened as will therefore the opportunity to generate enough revenue to make it into the 2021 season.

A further challenge for seasonal businesses will be to ensure that they are able to attract those with the right skills for their businesses when they are able to open. There is a real fear that those who would normally seek employment within the tourist economy will have opted for more secure employment elsewhere where that’s possible. That’s entirely understandable but these individuals are vital to help Pembrokeshire’s tourism businesses function at all.

While we need to continue to think about immediate impacts, we need to start now to think about what ongoing support such businesses will need in the medium-term to ensure their long-term viability. This needs to be wound into the emerging debate about economic recovery and we’ll be making the case to Welsh and UK Governments for funding and support to be available to do that.

Alongside these interventions, we’ll also have to think about the longer-term and consider questions about how we proof the sector for a more stable future. This includes thinking of innovative ways of marketing the County in the future, defining clearly what the core tourist offer is to ensure that where tourists return, they return in sufficient numbers to regenerate the sector and that in the longer-term, the County’s reputation as a quality destination is boosted. We’ll also have to reconvene all the discussions about how we might extend the season to ensure that those businesses can capitalise for longer from visitors. Improving sustainable transport and digital links will be more important as ever and the case for that will have a renewed sense of urgency.

We can’t take our eye off the ball. The tourism economy is not only important for those businesses directly within the sector but also all businesses throughout the County which depend on income from tourists and the profile that this industry gives the County.

There is no doubt that the immediate future looks very difficult for businesses. However, with the right safety net and support in place in the short-medium term and the generation of ideas on how we create a more resilient sector in the longer-term, I’m confident that tourism in Pembrokeshire won’t just be robust enough to return but to do so stronger than ever. At FSB, as an organisation which represents a wide range of tourism and seasonal businesses in the County, this is not just a hope but a mission.

Business News Wales