GUEST COLUMN:
Neil Kedward
Founder
The Seren Collection and Routescape
I have written privately to my local Labour MP and to the First Minister to set out some concerns about how current policy and messaging are landing for hospitality and tourism businesses in Wales.
Like many of us, I do so with a sense of responsibility given the sector underpins jobs, investment and community resilience across Pembrokeshire and much of rural Wales.
Recent business rates support for restaurants, cafés and pubs in Wales is welcome. However, the exclusion of large parts of the tourism economy is hard to understand. Hotels, visitor attractions, activity providers, event venues and other asset heavy tourism businesses face the same wage pressures, tax burdens and regulatory costs and, in many cases, carry higher fixed costs and greater exposure to business rates.
Tourism is an interconnected ecosystem. When accommodation is under pressure or visitor numbers fall, the impact is felt immediately across local shops, cafés, suppliers and high streets. In rural Wales in particular, hospitality and tourism are the circular economy.
I was also disappointed by recent public commentary suggesting that changes in social habits are the primary explanation for the challenges facing the sector. Consumer behaviour has evolved, of course, but framing the issue in this way only deflects attention from the cumulative, policy driven cost pressures businesses are dealing with every day.
Many tourism and hospitality businesses want government to succeed, of whatever political stripe, because stable businesses underpin sustainable employment and resilient communities. Confidence, however, is fragile and is being eroded by reactive policymaking, inconsistent messaging and limited engagement with those operating at the coal face.
I am raising these points constructively as our local businesses and community as a whole, depends on getting sustainable tourism and credible economic policy aligned.
We need a better approach.
