I Sold Wales Outdoors And Within A Week Wales Outdoors Was Allowed Onto The Visit Wales Website!

This after four and a half years of 'argument' and the denial of Wales Outdoors, when owned by me, a Visit Wales website listing!

Wales Outdoors has a listing on Visit Wales! Read on for the shocking details of how this came to pass…

If you have been following the epic saga of the Wales Outdoors four and a half years ‘campaign’ for fair play at Visit Wales then this will ‘blow your mind’. If you haven’t been following our story then this singular post ought to open your eyes to the endemic malfeasance within Visit Wales. Spanners have been and are right now being thrown by Welsh Government employees into the workings of SMEs, gobbling up time, effort and willpower and damaging the one thing they are tasked to do, to promote Wales and its attractions to the wider world.

I’ve been struggling to work out how to break this news, as I remain in shock, gobsmacked, so to speak, by the machinations of those who work for Visit Wales. But, here goes…

Wales Outdoors, just a couple of days ago was granted a listing on the Visit Wales website.

This followed Wales Outdoors being sold. The new owner applied for the listing, that for four and a half years has been refused to Andrew Lamb, and within a week was granted a website listing!

This is an outrageous abuse of authority and public money. The Welsh Government has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds communicating with me and defending its position, in court, by email, through FOI’s, the Ombudsman for Wales, a full review of their onboarding protocols (results due April but still pending), ministerial time and First Minister interventions.

Let me reiterate... For 4.5 years Wales Outdoors was denied a listing by Visit Wales but within 1 week of it changing ownership Wales Outdoors was made live on the Visit Wales website!

The thing is, I, Andrew Lamb, will be delivering the guided walks and guided tours as detailed on the Wales Outdoors website, as I always have done. Nothing has changed apart from ownership, the new owner making use of her project manager skillset to coordinate bookings and allocate providers.

Visit Wales has gotten itself into a mighty pickle and instead of apologising and making good the implementation of their ‘Top Secret’ operations manual they are allowing Wales Outdoors, under new ownership, to make use of a ‘loophole’ that they had made clear to me, on many an occasion since May 2020, was closed to Andrew Lamb and indeed to all other businesses. I can evidence businesses that were removed from the Visit Wales platform for promoting activities from their accommodation and guiding business, and, of course, I can evidence many more that Visit Wales told me should not be listed on their platform, according to their not fit for purpose rules, but that they refuse to remove. Today, Wales Outdoors is one of those businesses, onboarded, but arbitrarily so.

And, what a loophole! All guides in Wales ought to be outraged by the ‘fact’, and I say fact lightly as all efforts through email questions and FOIs have failed to return written protocols, that they must pay upwards of £600 for a wholly unnecessary accreditation whilst ‘apparently’ any person can call themselves an agent and offer the same activities as the professional guide, but without requiring any accreditation. Visit Wales is the ONLY tourism portal in the UK that demands this of any business let alone legally operating qualified and professional guides.

This makes no sense at all and is responsible for the Visit Wales website, the national tourism portal for Wales, having, until Wales Outdoors was recently onboarded, zero bookable guided walks or tours in the countryside and no walking festivals, festivals that deliver a few walks, or anything remotely ‘independent professional guide’ that places the visitor directly in touch with the provider, this in the second year of ‘Wales By Trails’. What it does have is a raft of businesses that are agents or accommodation providers that sell providers’ services without any oversight from the management of Visit Wales.

And I am not suggesting there should be any oversight. No other portal in the UK requires oversight and UK law is clear, no oversight is required. No business should have to jump through Visit Wales hoops, especially professionally qualified guides. However, the argument for the past four and a half years has been that of Visit Wales demanding this of Wales Outdoors but allowing multiple businesses that are in direct competition with Wales Outdoors a platform without requiring of them any accreditation.

Let me reiterate… A mountain leader requires accreditation with Visit Wales but, apparently, a tour agent who is free to employ any person or business to deliver guiding services or adventure activities in Wales, be they qualified or not, does not!

I was specifically instructed by Jon Munro and Heledd Owen, in 2022, that this was not the case. I was instructed that any business offering anything that fell into the Visit Wales Adventure Activity Accreditation Scheme would be barred from entry on the Visit Wales platform. This is why the ‘Report It Here’ link was added to all listings, at my insistence, but of course, reporting it is one thing, having the Visit Wales staff act on the report is another… And that has been my argument. There were, and there remain plenty of businesses, such as Clyne Farm Centre or Adventure Tours UK, that offer guiding services or adventure activities (see full lists here) and these businesses have been listed despite being flagged while Wales Outdoors was denied the same courtesy. Despite asking why these businesses are platformed, since May of 2020, staff at visit Wales have refused to respond in writing. Emails are unanswered, meetings unattended, Ministers obfuscated and FOI requests denied.

Clearly, an accommodation provider calling itself a centre and offering through its website gorge walking and other adventure activities ought to hold an adventure activity license. But that business has been live on the Visit Wales website throughout the four and a half years of my complaint, without accreditation. Or an activity provider delivering adventure activities not only being platformed without accreditation but being made 2024 Visit Wales partner!

This has disadvantaged Wales Outdoors in the tourism marketplace, for four and a half years, wasted a good deal of my time, time I could better have spent creating new products to promote Wales, and an excessive amount of Welsh Government time and money. For that there will never be ‘eyes off’ Visit Wales from me and I’ll be monitoring them along every step of their sordid path.

Is this a ‘Win’? No, it is not. This however provides clarity of the discriminatory behaviour shown towards legitimate Welsh businesses by Visit Wales management. The Welsh economy has been damaged by the actions of Visit Wales. There remain many businesses that ought to be onboarded by Visit Wales. Visit Wales continues to disadvantage many other businesses in the tourism marketplace.

In a future post I will detail the four and a half year campaign to force Visit Wales into delivering a level playing field for all, something that the management of Visit Wales still wilfully refuse to implement. I will also give one shot to the bringing together of tourism business owners to attempt change at the highest level at Visit Wales.

You can book our walks through the Wales Outdoors Website.

Your support is what allows these articles to keep being created and is enormously appreciated. Thank you. 

1. Subscribing monthly via Substack

2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeACoffee