Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism
The visitor economy is an important part of the wider Welsh economy, supporting tens of thousands of jobs across the country and bringing in tens of millions of pounds every year.
It is rapidly changing with the growth of online booking platforms and new entrants to the market. This has brought benefits, such as new routes to market and increased consumer choice, but concerns have also been raised about compliance with certain requirements, which accommodation providers should already be adhering to in order to operate.
As part of our ongoing work to ensure we have thriving and vibrant communities all year round throughout Wales and the actions we are taking to develop sustainable tourism, we are committed to introducing a statutory licensing scheme for all visitor accommodation. This will also help secure a sustainable visitor economy in thriving local communities.
This work is being undertaken as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru.
We undertook a public consultation about how a licensing scheme could work. This closed on 17 March 2023 with more than 1,500 responses. An independent analysis of the responses was commissioned in April, and I am today (5 July 2023) publishing the findings.
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