5. What assessment has the Minister made of the economic impact of tourism in north Wales? OAQ54199

The tourism sector employs just over 9 per cent of the Welsh workforce, and the 11,500 businesses generate around £6.3 billion a year—a huge contribution to the Welsh economy. It's also one of the key economic drivers in north Wales; it is important, I think, that we continue to grow the sector in the region and that we continue to enhance the region's key strength of attracting adventure tourism operators and attractions.

I'm sure, like me, you'll welcome the fact that we've been seeing rising numbers of international visitors, particularly from places like Japan in recent years. You may be aware that, last month, the Prime Minister announced plans to create five tourism zones in the United Kingdom in order to boost the sector and boost visitor numbers by 9 million, and to create 130,000 new hotel room accommodation. And, as an Assembly Member from north Wales, I know how critically important it is to get people to stay overnight and not just to visit on a day basis, in order to drive up the impact on the local economy. Given that these zones are up for grabs, can I urge you, as a Welsh Government, to co-operate with the UK Government and try to attract and make one of those zones north Wales so that we can reap some benefits from this investment that the UK Government is going to be making?

I'll certainly speak with both the Minister, my colleague Eluned Morgan, and also the Deputy Minister regarding this development, because, of course, it could play a key feature in the international strategy that is shortly to be consulted on. It would also neatly sit with the current partnership for growth strategy for tourism in Wales, which is striving to drive up the number of higher quality hotels in Wales. It's been a particular challenge over many years in attracting the developers of good quality, but also, it has to said, affordable hotels. Now, the Member is right that, in terms of spend, spend is higher on average per person per day with overnight visitors than it is with day visitors, and that's why it's so important to drive day visitors to come back for overnight visits, and this has been at the very centre of the partnership for growth strategy, which comes to an end next year. And, as the Deputy Minister develops the action plan that will follow it for tourism, I'm sure that he will be determined to guarantee more high-quality attractions and hotels in Wales for the future.

Thank you, Llywydd. We know that visitors bring around £70 million into the local economy in the Snowdonia area annually, but with that there are problems in terms of the images we see of people queuing on the top of Snowdon, for example. There are paths that are being eroded, the car parks are overflowing, there are problems with other infrastructure such as litter and public toilets. There is a risk that the success means that the visitor experience declines and deteriorates, and that that actually reduces the potential to grow this sector.

Now, I’m aware that the Government has allocated some additional funding to strengthen tourism infrastructure earlier this year but, of course, what we want to see is a sustainable long-term solution. And I just wanted to know what discussions you’ve had, for example, with your fellow Ministers on the possibility of providing better resources for the national parks, and Snowdonia national park specifically in this context, because, as we’ve seen the number of visitors double over the past 20 years, the Snowdonia National park Authority has seen its resources halved. So, you can allocate a little bit of money every now and again, but the sustainable solution would be to ensure that the national parks are properly funded in the first place.  

There are a huge number of visitors to Snowdon itself, more broadly to Snowdonia, yes, but the mountain itself is operating pretty much at capacity in terms of how many people can climb it at any one time. One of the concerns that we've had across Government is to make sure that we spread the wealth more evenly across the region and that we take away some of the pressure on communities in Snowdonia, particularly in those areas where visitors go to, by driving other opportunities for them to visit, for example, the areas of outstanding natural beauty, and we're looking at ways that we can better promote the relevance and the attractiveness in particular of the Clwydian range area of outstanding natural beauty in order to generate more opportunities in Denbighshire, in Flintshire and in Wrexham, whilst not detracting from the very special offer that Snowdonia has to make.

I think it's absolutely essential that all partners work together, and that's not just Welsh Government and the national park, but also Natural Resources Wales. They have a key role in promoting the natural environment in Snowdonia. I recently met with the chair and the chief executive of Natural Resources Wales to discuss the economic potential of Snowdonia, and, in particular, some of the assets, the buildings, that Natural Resources Wales own, which could be put to use in order to accommodate more visitors to the area and take some of the strain that I spoke of from those communities that host so many visitors each year.

Question 6 [OAQ54214] is withdrawn, as was question 7 [OAQ54219], so question 8—Nick Ramsay.