Tourism to start re-opening on 27 March and ‘stay local’ only in place for two weeks, Drakeford says

Tourism will begin to re-open within Wales on 27 March – with self-accommodation opening its doors for people within Wales.

The five mile stay local rule will only be in place for two weeks, from tomorrow, the First Minister said.

People within Wales will also be able to travel to see family elsewhere as long as they stay in the garden and only travel through the house to get to the garden.

Mark Drakeford said that ‘stay at home’ rules in England meant that people could not travel from there to holiday in Wales at Easter. The rule is expected to stay in place in England until 12 April.

“We’re lucky in Wales because we have so many fantastic places we can go to,” he said.

But it all depended on cases continuing to fall in Wales, he said.

He also said he was asking the UK Government to think “very carefully” about allowing foreign travel from May.

“The journey out of lockdown begins in earnest this weekend,” he said. “That’s because of all the hard people have done in pushing down cases continuously since the start of the year.”

Mark Drakeford however revealed that many non-essential shops would not be able to reopen until 12 April, at the same time as England.

Hairdressers will be able to reopen from Monday and shops that sell essential items will be able to begin selling non-essential items from 22 March. Garden centres will also reopen on the same date.

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