Llywydd, week after week the Conservative Party in this Chamber runs down the tourism industry in Wales. It’s never got a good word to say for it. If there was a lack of confidence in the industry, it’s because it’s listening to people like Tom Giffard.

Now, the real problem that the tourism industry in Wales faced over this summer, a summer of fantastic weather, was that it was unable to recruit the staff it needed in order to be able to open to the extent that it wanted to, and to make the money that it might have made—another of the Member’s Brexit benefits, no doubt.

I was very glad indeed to take part in the event with the leader of Plaid Cymru. We had an ample opportunity to set out for the audience there the reasons why we will introduce a visitor levy: because it will raise money to invest in the tourism industry, and to make sure that the conditions that make Wales an attractive place to visit today will go on being attractive places into the future. A small contribution to that from visitors who come to enjoy those parts of Wales is both a fair thing to do, but also a very effective way of making sure that we can support and sustain the tourism industry into the future.

The consultation was launched on 20 September, Llywydd, and over 500 responses have been received so far. There’ll be five consultation events, in all parts of Wales, one of which Adam Price and I attended. There’s a virtual event for people who can't get to the physical events; that will happen on 27 October. Welsh Government officials will present to the Senedd cross-party group on tourism on 19 October, so it'll be a chance for the Member to be put right on a few of the points he's made today—it'll be good if he turns up to hear a few facts. And we will go on working with the industry to make sure that, far from week after week telling us how poor the industry is, and how desperate they are not to make a success of the future, we will do the things with them that will guarantee that tourism in Wales will go on being supported into that future.