Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 2 May 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:46, 2 May 2018

Thank you for that answer. Obviously, we're all quite excited by Channel 4's news and two of the local authorities in my area are already lobbying quite hard on that, although I have to say that there's more to this than Channel 4 and Yr Egin. We are the best part of two years into this Government period now and I would have hoped to have had some clarity on creative industries development, particularly the cultural element for which you are responsible, although of course I understand that you've not been the Minister for that period of time.

I see that you'll be speaking at the launch of Wales Tourism Week pretty shortly. You'll be aware of the recent Federation of Small Businesses report that claims that specific Welsh Government funds for supporting tourism are, 'out of reach' for most small tourism businesses, suggesting that

'the vast majority of tourism operators...would have to plan to double in size' to be in with a shout of getting,

'support from the Micro Small Business Fund', which doesn't sound very micro to me, I must admit.

In the same way that Cadw has been very successful in adopting a more adventurous business model, so could our smaller heritage operators. I'm wondering how many heritage business operators are too small to benefit from these tourism grants, and how do you make sure that Visit Wales targets those who actually are big enough to benefit?