The Welsh Government, Alone Of All Authorities In The UK, Do Not Recognise Professional Qualifications!
Yes, Visit Wales will not allow fully qualified professionals onto the Visit Wales platform without a not fit for purpose and costly inspection BUT Visit Wales will allow ‘John from Bognor Regis’ onto the Visit Wales platform where John, without any inspection, can sell said qualified professionals products, taking a slice off the top along the way. Worse still, Visit Wales asserts that their inspection scheme is in place to ensure quality, which is laughable, as Visit Wales DO NOT impose any restrictions on what or who ‘John’ can sell, meaning John can sell unqualified adventure activity provision and countryside guiding! The bottom line here is that Visit Wales do not recognise hard-earned and costly professional qualifications such as those offered by Mountain Training or Wales Official Tourist Guide Association.
AND, they shouldn’t even be platforming ‘John’, according to Jon Munro and Heledd Owen at a meeting in September of 2022 and the Visit Wales onboarding protocols, which in the main are a mystery as all attempts at having oversight of these protocols has resulted in zero information being supplied. The following is a screenshot to be found on the onboarding page of the Travel Trade website and it is clear, the rules Visit Wales applies to qualified providers also apply to ‘operators’, like ‘John’…
Visit Wales, in full knowledge of the fact, since March of 2020, have been platforming businesses that according to their onboarding rules they should not. Here is an example, foraging days and offering ‘Walking and Hiking’ ,but without accreditation, which is so stupidly required by Visit Wales from any guide who travels more than 30 minutes from their vehicle. I’ve nothing against Brecon Beacons Foraging but I demand fair play. So, I used the ‘report it here’ button very many months ago. Brecon Beacons Foraging remains live on Visit Wales, despite, and in full knowledge of Visit Wales staff, not having any accreditation.
At the same time they have removed some businesses from their platform and disallowed others entry under those same rules. This is either ‘one rule for them and another rule for another’ or gross mismanagement… Further, Visit Wales have over this time misled, obfuscated and indeed lied whilst all the time not providing answers to questions that were asked to bring clarity to the chaos that is Visit Wales onboarding process. And understanding why Visit Wales is THE ONLY tourism portal in the UK to demand their own accreditation from qualified professionals, which in itself goes way over and beyond UK legislation, is something they will not explain. The most insightful comment I have received was ‘because that’s what we discussed’…
And now they assert that a professionally qualified mountain leader or tourist guide cannot gain a listing without a not fit for purpose and costly accreditation but, for example, that ‘Hans’ who lives in Germany and has started a business reselling tourist products and who can subcontract to anyone, qualified or unqualified, can… Visit Wales is therefore a joke, right? But I’m not laughing. I’ve spent hundreds of hours chasing fair play in this matter and now they have the audacity to assert that I am a nuisance correspondent, because I asked these fairly put five questions:
Why was I led to believe, by all contacts at Visit Wales, since March of 2020, that to sell anything outdoors from a simple guided walk of more than 30 minutes from the leaders vehicle to any adventure activity the seller required accreditation?
Why did Jon Munro specifically state that all, including accommodation providers and tour companies, required accreditation if selling hikes or adventure activities and he was looking at removing some that I had highlighted, for example, The Butchers Arms in Pontsticill, the example used to 'invent' the 'report it here' button?
Why when I was seeking clarification on this matter, using specific businesses and asking why they were able to be listed, not one member of Visit Wales staff had the courtesy to respond?
Why many reported businesses, who are clearly delivering guided walks without accreditation, remain live on the Visit Wales website?
Why Visit Wales think it is either good or acceptable practice to allow any unaccredited person, even someone not resident in the UK, to subcontract adventure activities to whomever they choose, be they qualified or unqualified, and to sell those subcontracted activities on the Visit Wales platform, whilst at the same time disallowing professionally qualified and resident in Wales outdoor and tourism specialists the freedom to sell themselves without having to pay a premium for the privilege?
But it is they that are the nuisance correspondent. Visit Wales and government ministers never answer a question, Visit Wales misinform the minister responsible for tourism, they redact FOI’s, they deny FOI’s and they refuse to provide both stage 2 complaint procedure protocols or their onboarding rule documentation. But mostly, they do not respond. All any complainant can expect is tumbleweed…
So, in response to their long email, not answering my questions but telling me I can only correspond to the one email address and that all other methods of communication will be ignored, I have replied to them, point by point… (I’ve only been corresponding with whoever the anonymous correspondent is at Visit Wales, likely Heledd Owen, and the relevant minister, currently Jack Sargeant, for some time and so I really do not know why they, now, have accused me of being a nuisance )
Email sent to Tourism and Marketing - Welsh Gov
Thank you for your email.
As previously communicated, your opening paragraphs I have received many times over. I know of these assertions. But these assertions are not my complaint and Visit Wales and the Welsh Government are wilfully ignoring the detail of said complaint. Simply copying and pasting the same content which has no relevance to my complaint is gaslighting. Not answering questions over the period of several years has led to my persistence and increasing acrimony towards Visit Wales, and I do not apologise for this. You are the government and you are paid by the public purse to treat everybody fairly and to be honest and open. You have not been this.
I have to disagree with you with regards to ‘unreasonable demands and persistence’. Had Visit Wales staff engaged and acted as promised, had Visit Wales staff acted in compliance with Visit Wales rules for onboarding and had Visit Wales staff answered a few questions asked of them, which would have enabled me to understand better what issues needed to be addressed, then so much of my and the Welsh Governments time and effort in this matter would not have been wasted. But Visit Wales staff did none of those things and they continue today to deliver a platform that is not only bereft of guided provision and festivals in Wales but is in full knowledge hosting businesses that it should not. Further, Visit Wales is delivering a platform that free of charge allows for agents and accommodation with no provable skills or knowledge of guided delivery to supply those activities, whereas qualified professionals must pay for a not fit for purpose inspection that adds no value to their business. This makes a mockery of the years of work undertaken in gaining a professional qualification and has the Welsh Government, alone of all tourism portals in the UK, asserting that qualified Mountain Leaders or qualified WOTGA guides are not professionals but that 'John' in Aberystwyth or 'Hans' in Stuttgart, who are, for example, business start-ups and are resellers of products, are viable and trusted operators.
The five questions I most recently asked are questions that have developed over time, due to the inconsistent approach and messaging from Visit Wales through March 2020 to August 2023, and Visit Wales silence from August 2023 to date. I will therefore continue to ask the same questions until they are answered, wherever and whenever opportunities arise.
It is therefore laughable that you ask me to direct all communication to one inbox. Why? Because not one useful answer has been given to any of my fair questions, ever, from any correspondent. Indeed, I have received nothing useful and I believe I have been misled for years, by both staff and management at Visit Wales and the Welsh Government, from data input to the First Minister.
I believe that this is because Visit Wales truly does not know what they are doing. Here is the brief timeline of one such question that clearly Visit Wales are unable to answer: I made multiple email requests for Visit Wales Website onboarding policy documentation, which Visit Wales and ministers failed to provide. This was then followed by a specific request regarding a particular business and how it was onboarded, again requested on multiple occasions. Again, I received no response. This was then requested as an FOI, on several occassions and all of which were rejected.
You mention FOI requests but again this is laughable as they are often, as mentioned, denied, or heavily redacted.
And then you repeat your request to me to remove personal data. You are here doing what you accuse me of doing, saying the same thing over and over. And I have responded to that request. I will, however, offer you the courtesy, a courtesy you do not offer me, of actually responding to you and so I repeat my offer to remove the posts, which do not contain personal data but do contain opinion and copies of communications, if Visit Wales agree to making an effort to understanding my complaint and dealing with it, by being honest and open and answering a few questions, which, to date, they have most certainly shown little interest in doing.
Yes, I have raised allegations. Please note that when this began in March of 2020 there were no such allegations. But as time progressed and obfuscation and misleading and lies were the order of business whilst my questions were not being answered and while my competitors were platformed outside of Visit Wales professed onboarding rules then I had no option but to raise the stakes. But the allegations are not flippant, they are my conclusions drawn from seemingly incontrovertible truths. As why would information be witheld? Why would a platform be, in full knowledge of the fact, onboarding some businesses outside of its own rules? Why would a government department not seek resolution but instead choose to ignore the complainant and worse still lie to and mislead the complainant?
So, I will ask the same questions again:
Why was I led to believe, by all contacts at Visit Wales, since March of 2020, that to sell anything outdoors from a simple guided walk of more than 30 minutes from the leaders vehicle to any adventure activity the seller required accreditation?
Why did Jon Munro specifically state that all, including accommodation providers and tour companies, required accreditation if selling hikes or adventure activities and he was looking at removing some that I had highlighted, for example, The Butchers Arms in Pontsticill, the example used to 'invent' the 'report it here' button?
Why when I was seeking clarification on this matter, using specific businesses and asking why they were able to be listed, not one member of Visit Wales staff had the courtesy to respond?
Why many reported businesses, who are clearly delivering guided walks without accreditation, remain live on the Visit Wales website?
Why Visit Wales think it is either good or acceptable practice to allow any unaccredited person, even someone not resident in the UK, to subcontract adventure activities to whomever they choose, be they qualified or unqualified, and to sell those subcontracted activities on the Visit Wales platform, whilst at the same time disallowing professionally qualified and resident in Wales outdoor and tourism specialists the freedom to sell themselves without having to pay a premium for the privilege?
You can book our walks through the Wales Outdoors Website.
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