{"id":837,"date":"2020-11-11T08:53:32","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T08:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/?p=837"},"modified":"2020-11-11T08:53:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T08:53:35","slug":"tours-of-wales-in-the-telegraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/tours-of-wales-in-the-telegraph\/","title":{"rendered":"Tours of Wales in the Telegraph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;It feels like a noose is tightening around our necks&#8217; \u2013 Welsh business owners blast new border restrictions<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/Travel\/2020\/October\/GettyImages-822423334.jpg?imwidth=450\" alt=\"Two thirds of Wales is in local lockdown \u2013 and now those in Britain's 'hig risk' areas are forbidden from entering the country\" \/><figcaption>Two thirds of Wales is in local lockdown \u2013 and now those in Britain&#8217;s &#8216;hig risk&#8217; areas are forbidden from entering the country&nbsp;CREDIT:&nbsp;GETTY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/authors\/e\/emma-cooke\/\">Emma Cooke<\/a>,&nbsp;content editor<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>15 OCTOBER 2020 \u2022 1:01PMFollow&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of 6pm this Friday (October 16), travellers from Covid hotspots in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland will be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/travel\/advice\/can-i-visit-wales-local-lockdowns-rule-six-shutdown-holidays-staycations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">banned from entering Wales<\/a>, in the latest blow to the already struggling Welsh tourism industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/politics\/2020\/10\/13\/wales-first-minister-suggests-could-close-border-english\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">travelling into the country<\/a>. 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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those in Liverpool \u2013 currently England&#8217;s only Tier 3 location \u2013 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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The news is \u201chugely worrying for the tourism sector here in Wales,\u201d said Tom Beynon, manager of the Three Cliffs Bay holiday park in Penmaen, Swansea. \u201cWe have already reduced our staff levels for the 2021 season. The park has also had to refund \u00a317,000 in payments for pre-booked October bookings, after Swansea moved into local lockdown.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSince the lockdown was enforced in South Wales a few weeks ago I haven&#8217;t had any business,\u201d said Gareth Bates, owner of Cardiff-based Tours of Wales, another area in local lockdown. \u201cThe calls and emails have stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u201cobviously I haven&#8217;t had their custom all year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe border restrictions relate to people travelling from high risk areas of England to low risk areas of Wales \u2013 so the restrictions don&#8217;t really affect me specifically [being in Cardiff],\u201d added Bates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. \u201cPersonally, I&#8217;d say it makes sense that if you live in a high risk area you shouldn&#8217;t be allowed to travel to a low risk area,\u201d said Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/Travel\/2020\/October\/GettyImages-1140605182.jpg?imwidth=480\" alt=\"Mid Wales is still open to tourists\" \/><figcaption>Mid Wales is still open to tourists&nbsp;CREDIT:&nbsp;GETTY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019s been left \u201ca bit flummoxed by it all\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to chart a way through to next Easter, as it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Welsh government has already locked down much of Wales, which has impacted our business, impacting movement into Wales only further restricts the business.\u201d London is a \u201cparticular\u201d blow, with its move into Tier 2 preventing \u201cmany of the hotel\u2019s customers\u2019 from visiting\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Taylor, the news only adds to what he describes as a \u201cperfect storm\u201d for the Welsh tourism sector. \u201cIt\u2019s just a noose tightening around our neck. We\u2019re a successful business, but with the absence of any serious replacement of the furlough scheme, it\u2019s very difficult to see how we can remain open through the winter and avoid redundancies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describing the current situation as a \u201cdouble bind\u201d, Taylor detailed how the hotel\u2019s cherished staff are \u201cthe USP\u201d of the business: \u201cIf we lose our staff we won\u2019t have the skills we need to provide the best service, but we also can\u2019t afford to keep them as it stands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the personal difficulties the new restriction poses, Taylor said he \u201ccan understand it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not my place to argue the whys and whens.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if the rules make sense, however, another issue may be the general discouragement of tourists, even those in low-risk areas \u2013&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/travel\/news\/furious-backlash-travel-journalist-wales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a contentious issue in recent weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have actually had several English guests (not even from \u2018high risk\u2019 areas) call since yesterday to check if they were still welcome\/allowed to come to Wales,\u201d said William Griffiths who owns The Angel Hotel in Abergavenny, and Michelin starred restaurant-with-rooms, The Walnut Tree .&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt seems that even more confusion has been created, where the message is being interpreted as \u2018Wales is closed and unwelcoming\u2019, which is absolutely not the case and could put people off visiting Wales in the future.\u201d<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;It feels like a noose is tightening around our necks&#8217; \u2013 Welsh business owners blast new border restrictions &nbsp;Emma Cooke,&nbsp;content editor 15 OCTOBER 2020 \u2022 1:01PMFollow&nbsp; As of 6pm this Friday (October 16), travellers from Covid hotspots in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland will be&nbsp;banned from entering Wales, in the latest blow to the already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}