Man who banned Mark Drakeford from dinosaur park accuses Welsh Govt of living in a ‘loony left-wing fantasy world’
A tourism leader who banned Mark Drakeford from his dinosaur park has accused the Welsh Government of living in a “loony left-wing fantasy world” with a “let’s make Wales different to England” motto.
Ashford Price, Chairman of Dan Yr Ogof, The National Showcaves Centre for Wales said new survey figures from over 100 attractions should “ring alarm bells” within the Welsh Government as it shows less visitors are coming into parts of Wales.
A recent Welsh Association of Visitor Attractions survey showed that 47% of WAVA members saw fewer visitors in 2022 compared to 2019 and 60% of members were pessimistic about the coming season.
Mr Price said: “Welsh tourism is still trying to recover from the pandemic and many operators are paying back loans related to Covid.”
“What is not helping Welsh tourism recover is the current Welsh Governments tourism policies as they appear to be based on a loony left-wing fantasy world where tourists are seen as an unwelcome necessity and therefore in the future they should pay for visiting Wales via a tourism tax.”
Welsh Government ministers were banned from visiting Dan yr Ogof Caves last year because of their “anti-tourism, anti-English” attitude, according Mr Price.
“Anti-English”
Andrew RT Davies paid a visit to the site to meet the owner shortly after the ban and a sign was placed in the ticket office which read: “Owing to the Welsh Government’s anti-tourism, and anti-English policies being imposed on the Welsh tourism industry, members of the Welsh Government are no longer welcome at this attraction.
“Their policies will lead to tourism businesses being forced to close and thousands of tourism jobs lost.”
Mr Price said: “The self-catering sector in Wales has always been regarded as the jewel in the crown of Welsh tourism owing to its very high standards and the amount of repeat business it generates for Wales. However, this sector has been singled out for their special loony treatment.
“As intended, their 182 day booking law will force many operators out of business and many will put their properties up for sale. However, most of these properties are in seaside hot spots, or situated in idyllic rural locations.
“Once these properties are on the market the Welsh Government thinks that they will be purchased by first time local buyers.
“However, this is another loony idea as it is estimated that many of these properties will sell for well over £350,000, which is well out of the reach for most young couples wanting to buy their first home.”
The park owner also described government plans to stop building new roads in Wales as “loony left proposals – their motto being let’s make Wales different to England” and said policies regarding catering businesses were more “loony logic”.
Mr Price said: “No other country in Europe including communist regimes has a booking requirement that is so high, and which will result in only 20% of self-catering businesses reaching the Welsh Governments target.
“Many farmers were advised that self-catering was the way forward. However, farmers who have diversified into self-catering on their farms will be amongst the hardest hit.
“Their short tourist season will make it near impossible for many to get anywhere near the 182 days of required bookings, thus they could be facing huge rate increases making their accommodation unviable.
“Where is the government’s loony logic in promoting a diversification scheme only to then make it impossible for it ever to be a success?”
He added: “Their fantasy ideology will only flourish if holiday makers who come mainly from England are then made to feel truly welcome and are prepared to pay extra taxes to visit Wales in the future.
“Another unknown factor is whether tourists will even be able to locate enough holiday accommodation for their stay in Wales from the remnants of a once flourishing Welsh self-catering industry.”
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The least scary thing in this photo is the dinosaur. RT has played the ‘anti English’ card. Is this because only ENGLISH people are being charged the tourism tax or is it that the leader of the opposition in the WELSH Parliament doesn’t give a flying fig that Welsh people and all non English visitors have to pay it, can all go to hell and suck it up? Are all non English people second class citizens in his view? Questions he now needs to answer due to invoking this ancient insult.
Three dinosaurs – may they be incinerated by a dragon.
i think you’ll find that any decision was based on scientific evidence concerning the most destructive pandemic in a century. wake up caveman, still living in the stone age are we??
“Welsh Labour are living in a fantasy world” says man who lives in a dinosaur park
I went to Rome last weekend.
I paid a tourist tax of 6 euros a day.
The other tourists did too.
The Spanish were there on Thursday for the football, us Welsh were there over the weekend for the rugby.
Rome was rather full of tourists last weekend.
Did you have time to visit the British Church that predates the Vatican? Oh wait, I mean the British church the Anglo Saxon English are now claiming as their own, due to them convincing the World, (Including the actual British Cymric people), that they are British. One of many Amazing historical Facts tied and belonging to Wales that gets stolen from us.
The closest thing to the ancient British Church is not the Anglican Church, established by the man who signed the Acts of Union, but the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is the church closest in faith and theology to what the ancient British Cymric people knew. The Eastern Orthodox Church acknowledges the ancient saints of Cymru as saints of her own flock. Dewch adref yn ôl i dŷ eich tad ac at hen ffydd eich tadau chwi bobol annwyl Cymru, hen hil y Brythoniaid a gwir berchnogion Ynys Prydain.
In that case you had an opportunity to celebrate St. David’s Day again yesterday since 1st March “Old Style” is 14th March Gregorian.
https://orthochristian.com/calendar/20230301.html
Moreso the Coptic Church.
We in Cymru suffer under the incompetent Labour and the U K which unfortunatly we are part of by the far right loonies tories so we have a 2 headed sword hanging over us
Dai Ponty, I can think of 18 Billion reasons to be happy that we are part of the UK. That’s before you even start to consider all the things which the UK funds for the whole country, such as defence, the cost of running embassies, coastguard etc. Skintdipendence? No thanks!
Funds what, HS2? We got EU funds because the UK government failed to fund us. English goverment is a con job. They hate us. You only need defense if you are a world problem, not the solution.
You mean like the Tory government in London who live in a right-wing fantasy world with anti-European attitudes?
It’s a good attraction but £18:00 a ticket for adults is quite steep, from here in Cwmbran it’s about an hour’s drive with the encumbered cost of fuel which means a prohibitive cost in these hard times. Why would someone from abroad let alone England want to visit & pay that entrance fee for a few hours when there are maybe similar attractions closer to home. Holidays Mrs Jones & I have taken abroad in the 20 years before the pandemic always incurred a visitor tax of varying levels but the cost of individual attractions would often determine whether we… Read more »
If it’s dinosaurs you are wanting visit Crystal Palace Park in South London. Row on the lake, walk among the foundations of the old palace, run a last lap around the overgrown athletics stadium, gaze at the stage where Bob Marley played his last concert and feed the ducks that swim at the feet of the Victorian antique concrete dinosaurs on Jurassic Island, exchange greetings with Guy the gorilla before downing a pint and a sarnie in the Annerley Hill pub… Who would want to go anywhere that welcomed that retweeting old Tory farmer who in the photo looks as… Read more »
Great photo of a large Wales historical creature with a big mouth – that is extinct ! The dinosaur 🦖 looks great though 👍🏼
The Brit Nat’s pinnacle of achievement, a pat on the back from the chief clown of the Welsh tories RTD, Ashford has turned into a sad and bitter old man.
“No other country in Europe including communist regimes has a booking requirement that is so high….”
Pray do tell, where are these European communist regimes I hear so much about? The Socialist Republic of Luxembourg maybe?
I guess he’s stuck in the 80s & probably thinks people still make their reservations via their landline telephone.
Should a team from Cymru ever play in the Premier League again take a bus to Annerley Hill and visit the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park, a far superior experience altogether…you can then jump on a train to London Bridge…
Man needs ds to move. We don’t mandate Tories and so have different views to England on many things. Time the old dinosaur caught up.
Why copy failure?
Didn’t this guy ban Russians from his caves? What a hypocritical twonk.