‘It feels like a noose is tightening around our necks’ – Welsh business owners blast new border restrictions

•  Emma Cooke, content editor

15 OCTOBER 2020 • 1:01PMFollow 

As of 6pm this Friday (October 16), travellers from Covid hotspots in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland will be banned from entering Wales, in the latest blow to the already struggling Welsh tourism industry.

The move comes after the First Minister of Wales wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson twice, requesting he prevent those from high risk areas within England travelling into the country. The Prime Minister ignored the letters, so Wales has announced that those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas of England will be barred from crossing the border. 

Those in Liverpool – currently England’s only Tier 3 location – were already unable to travel, but the move means those in Tier 2 areas, who are able to travel, will have to cross Wales off any holiday plans they may have. As of this week, London has now moved into Tier 2. 

Over two thirds of the Welsh population are already living under local lockdown, unable to travel. Mid Wales, which has remained open for tourism, will be hardest hit by this news – for many in the tourism sector in the areas in local lockdown, the news does little beyond adding yet more concern about the future of their businesses.

The news is “hugely worrying for the tourism sector here in Wales,” said Tom Beynon, manager of the Three Cliffs Bay holiday park in Penmaen, Swansea. “We have already reduced our staff levels for the 2021 season. The park has also had to refund £17,000 in payments for pre-booked October bookings, after Swansea moved into local lockdown.”

“Since the lockdown was enforced in South Wales a few weeks ago I haven’t had any business,” said Gareth Bates, owner of Cardiff-based Tours of Wales, another area in local lockdown. “The calls and emails have stopped.”

Though Bates had some business during the summer from people travelling to Wales from England, around 50 per cent of his customers are from the USA so “obviously I haven’t had their custom all year.”

“The border restrictions relate to people travelling from high risk areas of England to low risk areas of Wales – so the restrictions don’t really affect me specifically [being in Cardiff],” added Bates. 

Instead, the overall Covid-crisis is more of a concern, making any move to slow its spread and expedite the reopening of the whole of Wales a priority. “Personally, I’d say it makes sense that if you live in a high risk area you shouldn’t be allowed to travel to a low risk area,” said Bates.

For those companies that still remain open, however, the news comes as more of a blow. Michael Taylor, the owner and manager of Y Talbot, a popular hotel in Tregaron, has said he’s been left “a bit flummoxed by it all”. 

“It’s very difficult to chart a way through to next Easter, as it’s just total uncertainty. Business-wise, the new border restriction is clearly a negative, as a lot of our customers come from the Midlands and South-East of England.”

“The Welsh government has already locked down much of Wales, which has impacted our business, impacting movement into Wales only further restricts the business.” London is a “particular” blow, with its move into Tier 2 preventing “many of the hotel’s customers’ from visiting”.

For Taylor, the news only adds to what he describes as a “perfect storm” for the Welsh tourism sector. “It’s just a noose tightening around our neck. We’re a successful business, but with the absence of any serious replacement of the furlough scheme, it’s very difficult to see how we can remain open through the winter and avoid redundancies.”

Describing the current situation as a “double bind”, Taylor detailed how the hotel’s cherished staff are “the USP” of the business: “If we lose our staff we won’t have the skills we need to provide the best service, but we also can’t afford to keep them as it stands.”

Despite the personal difficulties the new restriction poses, Taylor said he “can understand it.” 

“It’s not my place to argue the whys and whens.” 

Even if the rules make sense, however, another issue may be the general discouragement of tourists, even those in low-risk areas – a contentious issue in recent weeks.

“We have actually had several English guests (not even from ‘high risk’ areas) call since yesterday to check if they were still welcome/allowed to come to Wales,” said William Griffiths who owns The Angel Hotel in Abergavenny, and Michelin starred restaurant-with-rooms, The Walnut Tree . 

“It seems that even more confusion has been created, where the message is being interpreted as ‘Wales is closed and unwelcoming’, which is absolutely not the case and could put people off visiting Wales in the future.”