Steffan Roberts - Deputy Director, Culture, Sport and Tourism

I’ll keep this short and sweet as really I have not had many dealings with Steffan Roberts. However, those dealings I have had have been polite but, from my perspective, an utter waste of time…

When I attended the first Visit Wales Roadshow in Newport in October of 2023 I was pounced upon by Heledd Owen and she introduced me to Steffan. This was a ploy to have me not ask questions during the open question session that day. I had no intention of asking questions, my presence simply being that, a presence to individually canvas attendees and to inform as best as I could, on a one to one basis, the nature of my ongoing complaint against Visit Wales.

Steffan volunteered to arrange a meeting with myself, himself and Heledd, to work through the issues I was raising. This meeting led to Visit Wales agreeing to review their onboarding policies, which are not fit for purpose, and which had resulted in there being no guided walk providers being promoted by that platform, in the anniversary year of the Wales Coast Path and in the subsequent two years of Wales by Trails. This review is due to be completed soon.

I say no providers… I mean most providers. Some are platformed, without having Visit Wales accreditation and in full knowledge of senior management. I pointed this out at the meeting (I was only able to gain a 30 minute zoom after which time Steffan said he had to be elsewhere) and Steffan agreed that if businesses were not accredited that they should be removed. At this meeting, Heledd said her team were working on the lists I had supplied.

But as is always the case with Visit Wales, the staff say one thing and then they do nothing.

I say they do nothing... I mean they do not remove errant providers but instead they ‘promote’ them. In 2024, a business that should not be on the Visit Wales platform, offering adventure activities and guided walks, without having any accreditation with Visit Wales, and without displaying any professional qualifications, and highlighted by me to management in the autumn of 2023 and also highlighted at the meeting with Steffan on November 6th 2023, was made a 2024 Visit Wales partner. I later discovered that 7 of the 14 publicised partners for 2024 require but do not have Visit Wales accreditation.

The businesses I listed for removal remain live, despite them not complying with the onboarding rules that deny my and many other businesses the Visit Wales platform.

A government department using tax payers money cannot be allowed to have staff act in this way. This is mismanagement on a grand scale, or, nepotism. There can be no other explanation. Given that management are in full receipt of lists of businesses that ought not to be platformed and given that some businesses are made partners of despite management knowing that they ought not to be platformed I think it is clear that nepotism not mismanagement is the only conclusion one can draw.

For four years I’ve been arguing for transparency and fairness, a level playing field for all, if you like. Steffan, at the meeting agreed that this is what he would be ensuring would be the case from that meeting onwards.

Steffan lied.

To see the bulk of the evidence, although there is very much that has been collated and I can supply on request, please see my submission to the Ombudsman for Wales and the supporting evidence. All of this evidence has been known to Visit Wales management, effectively since march of 2020 and in an up to date and detailed version since August of 2023.

You can book our walks through the Wales Outdoors Website or, if you are a group, you can book us for a bespoke adventure, you choose the date and time, using the ‘Book Your Guide’ option.

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