Visit Wales Roadshow, Newport, 12/10/23

I attended the Visit Wales Roadshow with the intention of leafleting delegates with a bullet point list of my ongoing grievance with the Welsh Government and their inability to see the knife in the back of tourism policy that is embedded within their accreditation protocols for guides in Wales. In the end, I refrained from leafleting delegates, in the main because the delegates were made up, for the most part, by those attending not through choice but because it is their job. By this I mean they were mostly Visit Wales staff, local authorities, tourism panels (who I have already messaged), land owners such as Welsh Water and Welsh and UK government officials. Individual tourism businesses were very thin on the ground, but, Visit Wales will hail the event a great success…

Please read my email to Heledd Owen, copied at the bottom of this post and sent 12/10/23, as yet unresponded to… This email outlines the key aspects of my dispute and a way forwards for Visit Wales.

I had conversations with a few at Visit Wales and from the local authorities though and Steffan Roberts and Heledd Owen approached me and thought that a meeting to discuss my complaints would be a good thing. I made it clear I have had meetings in the past, with agreed outcomes and that those outcomes have never been implemented and that I had been calling for meetings with Visit Wales staff since late August and that I had been wholly ignored. Steffan said that what had happened in the past ought to be put aside and that we should move forward. I made it clear that simply working within their own protocols would have avoided the actions that I’ve been taking.

I also spoke to Jason Thomas, Director of Culture, Sport and Tourism, who knew of me and my complaints. His attitude was interesting. He didn’t care that hundreds of businesses offering guiding services across Wales, including walking festivals, local guides and Wales wide businesses were effectively precluded from entry onto the Visit Wales website. He said that they can pay to be accredited. I made it clear that obviously they did not see accreditation as a valuable route as only one has paid for this ‘service’. Again, he made it clear that he didn’t care that guides in Wales have not been engaged with and that their valuable to tourism services are missing from the Visit Wales portfolio of ‘things to do’. He did say that my complaint of unaccredited businesses being listed was concerning and that he understood that work was being done to remedy that. Yes, Visit Wales are deleting even more bonefide businesses from their platform.

Visit Wales showcased their grant funding initiatives, many of which I see as not that constructive, and I’ll detail a couple here.

Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre Funding was made available to the Brecon Beacons National Park for a refreshed centre and for a mobility scheme. The centre, in my opinion, is a shadow of it’s former self, information being now thin on the ground but the usual tourist tat making up the mainstay of the interpretation space. It’s now a gift shop only in all but name. And the mobility scheme? This will be short lived, as funding for it will end, as it did for the ‘Beacons Bus’, and in any case, wheels on the common? I’m not ‘allowed’ to take wheels on the common, see my post here.

Pont ar Daf Car Park Yes something needed to be done and Wales Outdoors have been calling this location a disgrace to the Brecon Beacons for fifteen years. But the money spent will not alleviate any of the issues associated with the location. Indeed, the redevelopment has exarcapated the issues. When there were 24hr public loos, first in a purpose built block and then with a bank of portaloos, there is now just one loo open outside of visitor centre hours, and by 6pm it’s a disgrace. See my post here where you can also read my thoughts as to why the new car park will not end parking chaos at peak times at this location.

Cosmeston Lakes Funding was granted for a refurbishment of the look of the visitor centre at Cosmeston Lakes. Great! But wait! The cafe is like something from the 1970’s and oh so overpriced. I complained to the local authority as to why a great Cardiff Cafe or similar was not managing the contract for the cafe and they said that it had gone out to tender to a business in the Midlands who offered best value… Well, best value if you want low quality hot dogs and tired cakes at a criminal price…

Multiple Large Visitor Attraction Projects ‘They’ do not want visitors to the countryside. They do not want professional guides out there doing stuff that they can’t control. Hence the focus of expensive large projects that guide visitors to car parks and cafes and visitor centres that have no useful tourist information available and little but expensive vicarious pleasure activities on offer.

Transport In Wales It was agreed public transport in wales is shocking. It was agreed that rural bus services are being cut and that this is likely to continue. At the same time the Welsh Government have a stated policy of effectively ending private vehicle use. I reckon I’ve got a maximum of five years left of hotel pick ups and the driving clients to great guided walks in Wales. This message recently received tells this story well.

That’s one lost client, lost because they cannot make their way to the most popular start point for the Eight Waterfalls walk (now six due to the Brecon Beacons National Park’s closure of a vital footpath in this area) by public transport from the capital of Wales.

They Know Nothing Visit Wales will spend a small fortune making glossy videos showcasing the results of their spending but it is clear they know nothing about provision on the ground. This is because they are not the providers and unfortunately, as is evidenced in my case and from feedback I have from many in the industry, they do not engage with or even listen to the providers at the coal face of Welsh tourism. Or, worse still, they do understand but they want to see an end to small businesses and have visitors guided to the corporate attractions that they fund so generously.

Email to Heledd Owen:

I look forward to a date set for a meeting with you and Steffan. The sooner the better really as I will continue to expend my time on pursuing Visit Wales for resolution, and there really are better things I could be doing, such as developing tourism products for Wales! I think the meeting should be in two shortish parts:

1. protocols for inclusion of new walking/guiding businesses onto the Visit Wales that ensure unaccredited businesses are not 'by accident' allowed onto the platform. 

2. if 'by accident’ businesses are found a commitment to have them removed within a specified timeframe

3. methods of cleaning the Visit Wales platform of historic inclusions of unaccredited businesses as listings, in copy etc.

And

1. a chat about engagement with providers to enable Visit Wales to platform guided walk leaders that work in tourism as well as the walking festivals and the such like recently deleted from the site.

On that final point I had a discussion with Paul Donovan today which wasn't very helpful but it was interesting in that it did enlighten me regarding the problem with Visit Wales' accreditation scheme. When I asked Paul Donovan why it was that WATO say no more than 30 minutes from the guides vehicle he simply said 'because that is what we have discussed'. Further, he was unfazed when I said walking festivals and most guiding will continue to be removed from the Visit Wales site. He was happy with that. This shows a desire to control adult tourism activity without thought for impact on the industry. 

Have you ever looked at UK legislation on this matter? With regards to licensing of adventure activity providers? I have, as I used to be a licensed provider. I've checked the HSE site and this is the law:

'Trekking is journeying on foot, horse or pedal cycle or skiing over terrain which is moorland or more than 600 metres above sea level; and from which it would take more than 30 minutes travelling time to reach any accessible road or refuge'

Exemptions:

'1. Age of participants

If the provider only offers activities to people aged 18 or over.'

'6. Parental exemption.

If each young person is accompanied on the activity by their parent or legally appointed guardian. There is no exemption where children are accompanied by other responsible adults, regardless of their relationship to the child. Accompanied means taking part or being close enough to do so.'

Visit Wales could simply ask the question 'Do you offer activities that fall under the Adventure Activity Licensing Scheme? 

'Yes' - You need accreditation or you can self certify 

'No' - please provide details for your new provider listing on Visit Wales. 

It's that simple and in full compliance with the long standing law that covers the whole of the UK.

You could also add a caveat, although I think none is needed, that asks for leaders to hold the qualification for their listing, such as Mountain or Moorland Leader, and you could even ask for evidence of 50 + reviews resulting in a 4* or greater before a listing could be made live. Neither of these are onerous and indeed would only require a five minute job of checking the rating sites, which you can specify from the main places such as Google and Tripadvisor. I have Google, Tripadvisor, Airbnb, Facebook and Get Your Guide, all live on my site, and currently at 278 with 270 being 5* and 8 being 4*...

Why does Visit Wales work over and above the standard that applies to activity provision in the UK and indeed of UK law on this matter? Visit Wales are the only government tourism portal in the UK that demand providers of tourism services go beyond what is required by the law. By aligning itself with UK law many businesses would be enabled to be listed on the Visit Wales website and accommodation providers would have somewhere to point their clients to when offering things to do. After all, it is the year of Wales by Trails...

Accreditation by the licensing scheme is for multi activity providers and adventure activity specialists, in the main businesses of scale with large group numbers, working with school groups, youth groups, party groups etc, groups of children not supervised by their parents and taking part in adventure activity, and quite rightly, something needed to be in place for these groups safety. WATO is a vested interest group that are made up of these types of businesses and in the main none of which are able to work with tourists seeking guided walks in Wales. I spoke to one such today. He is not set up to work with one or two clients. I and many other guides are. We collect these individual enquiries and turn them into small groups. In offering valuable memories to their visits to Wales we ensue that there is repeat business and recommendations, not just for us but for the accommodation providers that we work with. 

WATO is in overreach and it would appear has influenced Visit Wales to be in this state too. In doing so it is perpetuating a great disservice to tourism providers in Wales and to tourists visiting Wales.

If the answer to having guides listed on the Visit Wales website remains no, then so be it. It would still be a bizarre state of being for the Wales tourism portal, when Wales is a walking destination, but Visit Wales management control access and can of course decide on the rules that they chose to implement. However, you need to be prepared to defend in a public forum that decision. 

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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