4. What is the Welsh Government doing to support the tourism sector in Wales? OQ58074

I thank Russell George for that, Llywydd. We support the sector through advertising Wales at home and abroad, through revenue support and our £50 million Wales tourism investment fund. Our visitor levy will support the sector by increasing local authorities' investment in the future success of the industry.

Thank you, First Minister, for your answer. I want to raise the issue as regards many holiday let businesses in mid Wales that I think will become unviable if the Government's plans to increase the threshold to 182 days per year let come into being. I'd be grateful if you would provide advice to Mr Paul Martin, one of my constituents, who has outlined his case to me many times and also outlined his case to the BBC politics show on Sunday this week. Mr Martin converted outbuildings on the site of his B&B. The cottages have never been lived in. In fact, the utilities across all the cottages are joined and planning permission does not allow for the properties to be used for residential dwelling use. The holiday season is, of course, shorter in many parts of Wales, including in Kerry where Mr Martin's business is situated, so it would be near impossible for Mr Martin to let his four properties each for 182 days per year. Under your changes, Mr Martin would have to put his properties into the council tax system. Under the council tax system, increased charges would make the business unviable and the business would, sadly, have to close. However, despite the business closing, Mr Martin would still have to pay the higher rate for empty properties, and the cottages would become not able to convert and would remain a liability for Mr Martin and his business. Can you advise Mr Martin how he should proceed?

Well, Llywydd, I'll respond to the general point, because I can't be expected to give advice to somebody about their specific circumstances. In general, the position is this: where businesses are businesses, then of course they should be regulated under a business system, and they should take advantage, where they can, of any reliefs from business rates. If you're not letting a property for half of the year, then I don't think you're properly regarded as a business. You can continue to operate, of course you can. Nobody is saying that the business doesn't continue; it's simply that, in those circumstances, you should pay council tax and make that part of your business plan. That, I think, is a fair way for people to proceed. It is a way of distinguishing between businesses that are businesses in the full sense of that term from businesses that, as we have heard, and have heard many times on the floor of this Senedd, arrange their affairs in a way to take advantage of small business rate relief and to deny the contribution to local authority funds that is necessary to support them in their wider operation.

First Minister, sport and culture are obviously two key drivers for tourism in Wales and, here in north Wales, we have some golden opportunities to promote tourism through sport and culture in the coming weeks. Would you confirm that you and your entire Government will be offering full and pretty fierce support for Wrexham Association Football Club in the National League play-offs and also to the people of Wrexham county borough in the campaign to win the UK City of Culture status competition?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Ken Skates for that question. It does take me back to the terms of the original question, asking us what we do to support the tourism sector, and one of the things that we do is to support the sector in extending the range of things that it has on offer and to extend the season over which it operates. And when Wrexham becomes, as I certainly hope it will, the city of culture, when that is announced, as we believe, on the thirty-first of this month, then it will have the support of the entire Government behind it. The Minister for culture wrote to the local authority very recently, setting out the support that the Welsh Government will offer—financial support and other forms of support—so that that could be conveyed to the committee responsible for making the decision, so that they would know that. If they choose Wrexham, as I hope they will, then they can do so knowing that the Welsh Government will be four-square behind the bid and the year of activities that would follow.

Llywydd, I don't lack advice on the fortune of Wrexham Association Football Club. A source not very far from where I am standing keeps me very well informed, and, just before First Minister's questions arrived today, we were discussing the relative merits of Grimsby and other potential opponents for Wrexham and where they lay in the league and who had played them and what their results had been. So, I'm very pleased indeed to support Wrexham Association Football Club. They've had a fantastic season, and I hope it ends with the success that the club deserves.

Question 5 [OQ58081] has been withdrawn. Question 6, Carolyn Thomas.