CANCELLATIONS are "inundating" hospitality businesses as as people try to pre-empt a tightening of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas.

At the time of writing, Christmas parties are permitted in Wales.

However, perhaps as a result of last year's last-minute implementation of stronger restrictions, people are becoming wary of nailing down any festive plans this time around.

Ben Francis, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Wales Policy Chair said: "Many of these businesses will usually make a significant proportion of their income for the year in these important festive weeks. Many have not yet regained the losses incurred from last year’s lockdown.

"However, many of these businesses – particularly in hospitality – are already feeling the effects of concerns raised by the Omicron variant with pubs and restaurants around Wales reporting cancelled bookings."

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One such business is the Castle Inn, in Usk.

Owner Matthew Dawkins said that he had already been "inundated with cancellations".

"These are for hotel rooms, Christmas parties and numbers are dropping like flies," he said.

"Another bad Christmas looms, which is going to be awful for the hospitality trade."

Forced to look on the bright side, Mr Dawkins did point to "one positive" in that "the cancellations will give us less staff concerns".

The FSB said that these latest impacts are "no different from the impacts which triggered previous rounds of funding support".

"We call on Welsh Government to make ready appropriate funding to support those businesses worst hit," Mr Francis said.

Paul Slevin, President of Chambers Wales South East, South West and Mid, said: “Even though cases of the new omicron variant in Wales are currently low, the vaccination rollout and the booster programme remain the best way of protecting people.

"Businesses should be as accommodating as they can to their employees, offering flexibility to enable staff to receive their vaccines when they are invited.”