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Tourism tax will turn Wales into land of ‘betting shops, tanning salons and tumbleweeds’ says Andrew RT Davies

02 Oct 2022 3 minute read
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies. Picture by Matthew Horwood.

The leader of the Welsh Conservative has said that a tourism tax in Wales would turn the country into a land of “betting shops, tanning salons and tumbleweeds”.

Writing in the Daily Express, Andrew RT Davies said that one in seven jobs in Wales depended on tourism and that a visitor levy, as the Welsh Government have called it, would “risks our livelihoods in our communities”.

The Welsh Government, on 20 September, launched a public consultation on proposals to give councils the powers to introduce the fee paid by people staying overnight in accommodation in Wales.

The tax is not due to be introduced until 2024, but some business groups such as Mid Wales Tourism have already raised concerns that the consultation could be damaging business confidence.

Overall, tourism industries accounted for 11.3% of employment (151,000 jobs) in Wales in 2020, according to the Welsh Government’s figures.

“Our tourism and hospitality sector accounts for one in seven jobs in Wales. Labour want to slap a tax on our tourism industry,” Andrew RT Davies said.

“That risks our livelihoods in our communities.

“Under their policies, Wales would be nothing but betting shops, tanning salons and tumbleweeds.”

Writing before the start of the Conservative Party conference, he added that readers should “let Labour’s historic, systematic mismanagement of Wales be a stark warning to people across the UK”.

“The cost of Labour is enormous. Just look at Wales.”

‘Rhetoric’

Andrew RT Davies also said that Labour Welsh Government’s co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru shows that UK Labour will get into bed with the SNP.

Keir Starmer has ruled out any deal with the SNP to govern in the event of a hung parliament after the next General Election.

However, Andrew RT Davies said that “if Labour gain power, and if Keir Starmer enters 10 Downing Street, we will see lower wages, longer waiting lists, worse education outcomes and higher taxes, we’ll see Labour’s choking of opportunity spread across our great Union”.

“And yes, despite the rhetoric at Labour conference, Labour will get into bed with the Scottish nationalists, just like they have with the separatists in Wales.”

The start of the Conservative Party conference follows a tumultuous week which saw the pound slump to a record low against the dollar and the Bank of England step in to prevent the collapse of the pensions industry in the wake of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts.

Liz Truss arrived in Birmingham for the start of the annual Conservative Party conference as another opinion poll showed Labour with a big lead over the Tories.

The survey by Opinium, put Labour on 46%, 19 points clear of the Conservatives on 27%. On the issue of the economy it found that a one-point lead for the Tories a week ago had become a 19-point advantage for Labour.


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Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
2 years ago

Welsh Conservatives complain about a tourist tax to be levied by local government to be spent on improving their tourist resorts, it could be as much as 5%.

Why don’t the Tories complain about the rate of VAT on holiday and holiday accomodation at 20% ? Yes, 4 times that amount.

Which just goes to the UK Treasury to be spent on failed projects such as the £45 billion tax cut for Very high salary earners including those that short the currency.

Sounds like an attack on Welsh people and their parliamentary democracy.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
2 years ago

Exactly.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
2 years ago

This is the ‘best’ (worst) one yet from RT. To say what he has said when not only Wales but everywhere else his masters are decimating will see tumbleweeds, even betting shops and tanning salons will be going out of business. Their shops will be empty and the homes of their staff will be too as they are turfed out onto the street after thousands of repossessions. I have the words to hand to describe this man and his party but I cannot possibly write them here.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
2 years ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

P.S. He slipped up badly in describing Wales as a country though. Despite this being correct, he doesn’t believe it is one and he risks incurring the wrath of Lord Frost in doing so.

George Atkinson
George Atkinson
2 years ago

Ive been to places with tourism tax and thats an outright lie by the fat twerp. How dare the pig talk about our country like that.

Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
2 years ago

Having island hopped in Greece during my younger days I was saddened at the absence of tanning salons and betting shops despite paying 5% tourism tax at every pension I stayed at!

I.Humphrys
I.Humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Dean

Good one!

Nobby Tart
Nobby Tart
2 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Dean

Same here. After paying my 6 euros a night in Rome, all I got was 2000 years of history, fine wine and great food. What a let down!

Frank
Frank
2 years ago

I have never understood why political party politicians who are not in power get paid. Technically they are unemployed. The rest of us have to be satisfied with being on the dole yet these politicians get paid as much as the ones in power.

Rob Evans
Rob Evans
2 years ago
Reply to  Frank

Parliamentary democracy wouldn’t work without government party and opposition backbenchers. In the Senedd they serve on committees that scrutinise government legislation, for example. Also, it’s the job of the opposition to oppose and ARTD gets extra pay for that as Leader of the Opposition. So it’s ok for him to oppose government ideas but it leaves him open to ridicule when he opposes good ideas or talks nonsense (which seems to be his default setting).

Frank
Frank
2 years ago

“Land of tanning salons, betting shops and tumbleweeds”….. that’s the situation now RT or do you live on another planet and are not aware if it!!! So how can he say that tourism tax will cause it when it already exists? Oh, he forgot to mention charity shops. Roll on independence.

Andrew Redman
Andrew Redman
2 years ago
Reply to  Frank

Many people rely on charity shops.It those charity shops that raise considerable funds for many causes.You want to see them closed down!😡

Frank
Frank
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Redman

Obviously and absolutely not!! When charity shops spring up everywhere it is a sure sign of extreme poverty and are a great help to the needy. I am simply highlighting the dire state of the country.

R Paterson
R Paterson
2 years ago

RT was strangely quiet about the likely and then the actual impact of Brexit on the hospitality industry in Wales, with hundreds if not thousands of jobs vacant and total or partial closures of pubs and restaurants. But then his ponderous, robotic statements have always shown that he doesn’t do joined up thinking.

Gareth
Gareth
2 years ago

Once again he makes a statement that will please his London masters, but one that has no evidence or facts to back up his assertions. On the contrary, no country with a tourist tax/ levy has seen the decimation of its tourist trade. Attention seeking again, in a vain attempt to be recognised by Tory’s in England who still don’t know who he is.

Windy
Windy
2 years ago

Usual crap from ars . . . . Davies after what his paymasters have done last week you thought it would be wise if kept his mouth shut

Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
2 years ago

As the CEO of WATS (Welsh Association of Tanning Salons) I wholeheartedly support this optimistic view of our economy and trust my colleagues in the betting industry will too

Vyvyan
Vyvyan
2 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Dean

Shouldn’t it be TWATS (The Welsh Association of Tanning Salons)?

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

Conference time and poor Arty doesn’t even merit the Sidebar Of Shame. Should we take up a collection for him?

Blinedig
Blinedig
2 years ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

Someone should print a collection of comments from these pages and send them to him personally.

Llyn
Llyn
2 years ago

What a preposterous statement with zero evidence to back up the ridiculous hyperbole. One of many problems for the Welsh Conservatives is that they simply repeat their more and more outlandish accusations that simply do not tally with lived experience or reality and voters begin to see them as an almost comical irrelevance.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
2 years ago
Reply to  Llyn

The ENTIRE purpose of Tories sitting in Y Senedd is to shoot down any policy which makes money FOR Cymru and to defend any defrauding policy which takes money FROM Cymru. Nothing else. Simple really.

Cathy Jones
Cathy Jones
2 years ago

Dear R.T D.T’s

Have you ever been to Wrecsam?…Or anywhere? ..Ever? Have you been to the North of England? Have you been to that London where your bosses live? What’s with all of those US sweetie shops? Why aren’t you as rich as other less capable Tories? Doesn’t it make your bum itch that there are no Welsh Tories with comparable wealth as English ones? Are you a wally?

Maximum disrespect,
Cathy. J…..xx(my hole)

DAI Ponty
DAI Ponty
2 years ago

R T Davies like his Tory Party are IRELEVENT in Wales just like Plaid and the S N P are IRELEVENT in England and come the Next General Election you will face WIPEOUT in Wales you might be lucky to keep one seat and you will take hiding over the border as well as your party will trash the economy

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
2 years ago

Andrew RT Davies has just described Wales if ever voters were stupid enough to trust him and the Welsh Conservatives with the levers of power in Wales as First Minister & Welsh Government.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Mr Davies is an idiot making money by writing nonsense for other idiots.

Vyvyan
Vyvyan
2 years ago

Relevance deprivation syndrome.

Argol fawr!
Argol fawr!
2 years ago

If ever a statement applied to RT…

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”
Mark Twain

As for Truss and K, often isn’t quickly enough.

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
2 years ago

He is a horrible, odious man.

A shameless unionist lickspittle, he should be ashamed of himself!

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