Wales is a beautiful part of the world, with a phenomenal tourism offer.
But sadly, after 26 years of consecutive Labour Welsh Governments, we have been sold short as a holiday destination by ministers who don’t know how to run a bath let alone a business and let alone how to manage an economy.
They look at any inkling of success with a view to taxing the hell out of it. After rinsing Wales’ rural communities with their death tax, Labour is set to ransack our tourism hotspots with a toxic tourism tax.
Holiday bills in Wales will go up by nearly £50 overnight. That might not be a lot of money to Labour ministers in the Senedd who enjoy chauffer driven cars and ministerial visits to Welsh tourism hotspots, not to mention jetting off to Qatar to watch football.
Tenby is a seaside town in Wales popular with tourists
GETTY
But to the average family picking their well-deserved break, that extra cost will be off-putting. I call it Labour’s toxic tourism tax, because of the evidently corrosive effect it will have on the sector.
Labour commissioned a Cardiff University report that revealed the extent of the damage such a tax could do. That report points to a pessimistic but plausible scenario that would see a tourism taxed Wales take a £62 million economic hit and lose over 700 jobs.
But that’s not a one off figure – that’s an annual figure. Wales could be set to lose hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of pounds every single year in an already struggling, seasonal sector.
If that’s not shooting yourself in the foot economically, I don’t know what is.
LATEST MEMBERSHIP OPINION:
Just like when its own figures revealed a potential £9 billion hit to the Welsh economy from its barmy 20mph speed limit, Labour is ignoring its own economic assessment once again and is pushing ahead regardless.
In fact, if every council uses these new powers to enact a tourism tax, the money raised wouldn’t even equal the cost of Labour’s 20mph policy.
But why are Labour ministers in the Senedd so intent on slapping this tax on such a vital industry here in Wales?
The answer lies in the party they are relying on to pass the tax in the Senedd- Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalists.
The policy itself features in the so-called cooperation agreement, Labour and Plaid’s abysmal coalition deal that gave Labour soft nationalists an outlet to unleash those tendencies on the people of Wales.
Their disdain for “visitors” has led to this act of economic self-harm. They don’t care about the retail, leisure and hospitality sector as they claim to.
Left-wing politicians in Wales have one overriding motivation. It’s extreme and divisive.
Only the Welsh Conservatives are standing up for Wales and our tourism industry, because when it comes to the dreaded and toxic tourism tax, we are clear: we must axe the tax.