THE tourism and hospitality sectors in Wales were among the hardest hit by coronavirus. And, while many businesses are open again, they face rising costs and having lost most of the spring and summer revenue.

The South Wales Argus gathered a group of leading figures from the industry together to ask what they need from the Welsh Government to help them thrive again.

Here’s what they said:

South Wales Argus:

Ian Edwards, chief executive at Celtic Manor Resort

“The two big asks from me are the change of the message to ‘Wales needs your help to kickstart the economy’. We need them to lead with that.

“Second is finishing the roadmap by it being signposted as it helps us plan for the future, for our team members and to inform our guests.”

Marc Owen, streetscape manager at Pembrokeshire Council

“The big issue is social distancing, people are still confused when they come over from England.

“We need the Welsh Government to get some clear messaging out there and for that messaging to go over the border. If we all look after themselves and work together, we can beat this pandemic. We want to avoid another spike, that's key to everybody.”

South Wales Argus:

Rebecca Rigby, operations director at Bluestone Resort

“The main point for us is the 2m social distancing. It would be a significant step forward for us in terms of the revenue opportunities [if we were at 1m]. We need to make sure we have the appropriate processes in place and I'm confident we can do it as an industry. That would make us more resilient in the long term.”

Dennis O'Connor, liaison manager at Pembrokeshire Tourism

“The Welsh Government needs to review the whole process, look at what has worked and capture that. Look at what didn't work and look at the reasons why to see what can be improved.”

Prof Dylan Jones Evans, pro vice chancellor at the University of South Wales responsible for enterprise

“Businesses don't need money, they need customers. Restricting customers stops those business making money. You have to trust businesses and industries to do that right thing or we'll be in lockdown for ever. Businesses will put their staff, their customers and their communities as their priorities. They are not going to put themselves in a position where it's going to affect those three stakeholders.

“Second, how do we make the season expand? Let's be blunt, the reason all the places across Wales are full now is because people can't go abroad [easily]. We spend as a population more every year to fly abroad than we get in income from people visiting the UK. So if we are going to create a sustainable tourism industry, the question is how do we persuade the population of the UK to not go abroad and to spend their money here. How do we get what's happened over the last four weeks extended over the next four, five, six months?”

The comments were made during a live event organised by the Argus and our sister titles across South Wales aimed at helping the tourism and hospitality sectors to get going again.

The event was organised in partnership with the University of South Wales and you can watch the session above.

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