WATO To Develop Adventure Action Plan - They Are The Worst People For The Job!
The Welsh Government have completed their review, forced upon them by years of campaigning by the Wales Outdoors lead guide, Andrew Lamb, and found WATO advice to be damaging to the tourism industry in Wales. Despite requests for a timeline for implementation, the Welsh Government have refused to provide any information regarding how and when the outcomes of the review will be integrated into the Visit Wales onboarding protocols. Now, this…
The Welsh Government have commissioned the Wales Adventure Tourism Organisation (WATO) to develop an Action Plan for Adventure Tourism in Wales (2025-2030). Interestingly we are already closing in on March 2025 so a tad last minute this initiative seems…
Some time ago Wales Outdoors wrote to the four regional contacts listed on the WATO website and received three bounce backs. They had not updated their contact page for a VERY long time. The email that did not bounce back remains unresponded to.
Subsequently, of the many emails sent to the current four regional representatives over the past couple of years, Wales Outdoors has received not one single response. WATO then refuse to explain why their advice to the Welsh Government over the past five years has resulted in zero professionally qualified guided walk providers being listed by Visit Wales. Dismay at this situation has been voiced by both the tourist guide and mountain leader camps. The reason for this lack of guides on the Visit Wales platform is that WATO have been advising that the Welsh Government to go WAY beyond UK Law and so to actively discriminate against those professionally qualified guides and leaders that offer guided walks in the Welsh countryside.
And the discrimination is clear. WATO have nothing to say on the matter of Visit Wales listing both accommodation providers and tour agents who offer guided walks, and indeed adventure activities, all without oversight and certainly without a commitment to using qualified leaders.
Yep, you read that correctly, WATO is responsible for unqualified providers gaining a listing with Visit Wales but qualified leaders being unable to gain a listing with Visit Wales.
Andrew Lamb of Wales Outdoors confronted Paul Donovan, the chair of WATO, in the autumn of 2023 and asked why had WATO advised the Welsh Government in this way and all Andy could get out of Paul was ‘because that is what we discussed’. Andy was ‘gobsmacked’ by this response and pressed Paul for an explanation but could get no further information out of him.
In summary, WATO are:
Sloppy with the maintenance of their public facing website
Preside over flawed and ill thought through advice which negatively affects activity tourism in Wales
Not transparent or communicative and refuse to explain their decisions
And WATO have been proven wrong in their five years of advising the Welsh Government to not list certain qualified providers on the Visit Wales website. In January 2025 the review that Wales Outdoors forced the Welsh Government to undertake fully vindicated Andrew Lamb’s campaigning and listed these outcomes that are a direct result of WATO advice to the government:
That the Visit Wales onboarding protocols are the most onerous in the UK resulting in constraints and limitations.
Introduce an Approved Provider route for guided walk operators who are Qualified Members of the Mountain Training Association
Discrepancies in Visit Wales website content were admitted.
Poor uptake of the existing scheme was admitted.
No acknowledgement of the work by Wales Outdoors and Andrew Lamb and no apology for the discrimination against Wales Outdoors and many other outdoor professionals, for five years, resulting in the loss of business and loss of tourism income for Wales, has been received.
Of 20,000 people and businesses questioned on the full review of onboarding protocols for guided walk leaders, Visit Wales received 20 responses. This is indicative, we believe, of how Visit Wales is viewed by the industry. Utterly irrelevant and of no meaningful use to their tourism provision in Wales. After having looked at the questions required by the current WATO consultation, we expect far fewer to respond.
What we see is a data-gathering expedition, with details of staff and turnover and company greenwashing being requested but without any request for ideas. The final question does allow for some comment but it has boundaries placed within the question that are there to guide any answer.
Wales Outdoors feels that the sector requires nothing of government, no interventions, just a level playing field for all to thrive, within the boundaries set by UK legislation, in the economic marketplace that is adventure tourism in Wales. Where there is a gap in the market an entrepreneurial type will most certainly fill it. Where something is not working a business owner will ditch it. It really is that simple.
But the Welsh Government are not about hands-off. When Andy met with Mark Drakeford it was clear that Mark, as FM, was keen to be hands-on and micro-managing the SMEs, which we believe, the Welsh government do not want to exist. It’s far simpler for the Welsh government to deal with a few larger entities than a series of one-man bands with, god forbid, ideas of their own.
After completing the survey, to find out what questions it was asking, we deleted it without sending it. The survey truly offers no opportunity to discuss the future of adventure tourism in Wales and appears to be just another ‘jobs for boys’ data collection exercise.
From the Welsh Government:
The increasing demand for landscape-based recreation activities means there is considerable potential for increased growth in outdoor activity tourism in Wales, however, appropriate support for the sector is essential if this is to be realised in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable manner.
The Welsh Government have commissioned the Wales Adventure Tourism Organisation (WATO) to develop an Action Plan for Adventure Tourism in Wales (2025-2030). This action plan will ensure that the sector can respond to the trends in the visitor economy and deliver significant health and well-being benefits for the people of Wales whilst recognising that economic growth must be environmentally and culturally sustainable.
If you are a business offering outdoor activities, we hope you will complete this survey to ensure that the action plan reflects the views and needs of the outdoor activity provider sector.
Remember, we have a social hiking group walk on the 1st March and this will have a meet Llanbradach Railway Station and will be a full circuit of Senghenydd Dyke. Join Us!
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You can book our walks and tours through the Wales Outdoors Website.
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