The WTA would like your views on this extremely important consultation which we intend putting forward a response to. From 1 April 2018 the Welsh Governemnt will be introducing a new SBRR scheme in Wales. This permanent scheme aims to more effectively target support for small businesses. They have stated that they are consulting on proposals that include:
Download the documents from here: https://consultations.gov.wales/consultations/delivering-tax-cut-small-businesses-new-small-business-rates-relief-scheme-wales
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Welsh Government is looking for a highly experienced senior manager to take on this exciting new role, with responsibility for developing an ambitious approach to secure business conferences and events into venues across Wales.With extensive MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, events) experience, you will take a commercial approach to building Wales’s profile as a business event destination – focusing on delivering real business - aligned with priority business sectors and academic, scientific and medical strengths. You will develop new ways of working, boosting Wales’s profile and performance, and help build the competitiveness of the Wales business events sector.
With excellent strategic planning and management skills, you will play a pivotal role in developing and delivering a new sustainable approach, harnessing key partners and stakeholders at every level across the public and private sector, including creating a long-term funding model. Find out more and apply here. Closing date: 29 August 2017 Visit Wales will be on the road in October for a series of roadshows to explore how you can work with them on the Year of the Sea in 2018. A showcase of Welsh food and drink with a Year of the Sea theme will also be available throughout the day.
they will update you on the latest plans for our 2018 marketing theme and give you a flavour of the campaign creative and content calendar for the year and also be in touch on the 2019 theme - Year of Discovery – and share the latest news on The Wales Way marketing campaign that they are developing around the main routes across Wales. You can also learn more about the Wales brand and what it means for you – with practical tips and advice on aligning your own branding to the wider Wales brand. Local tourism industry guest speakers will share their experience of applying for funding to help them link into the Year of the Sea theme. The events will start at 10:00 am and finish at 4:30 pm - a light lunch will be provided. Book now. Places are limited due to venue capacity. To allow as many businesses as possible to attend we’re asking politely for you to restrict numbers to a maximum of two places per business/organisation. Book your free place online now as there are only a limited number of places at each venue. Please remember, you’ll need to complete a separate booking for each person: 02/10/17 –Stradey Park Hotel & Spa, Llanelli SA15 4HA 19/10/17 – Venue Cymru, Promenade, Llandudno LL30 1BB 24/10/17 – The National Library of Wales, Penglais Road, Aberystwyth SY23 3BU 26/10/17 – St Donat’s Art Centre, St Donat’s Castle, Llantwit Major CF61 1WF Visit Wales reserve the right to only accept single registrations from each business/organisation if the events become over-subscribed. Fisheries are worth an estimated £150m to the Welsh economy each year and supports around 1,500 jobs, therefore, it is important to protect them.
The continuing fall in the number of salmon and sea trout in Welsh rivers has meant stocks have reached unprecedented lows in recent years and now threatens the future of many fisheries. In order to tackle this decline, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is considering several actions which will help reverse the trend and ensure both iconic species continue to play a vital role in our environment and culture. Ceri Davies, NRW’s Executive Director of Evidence Policy and Permitting, said: “The decline in number of salmon and sea trout migrating back into most of our rivers is now so serious that we need to give more adult fish the chance to spawn if we are to ensure the survival of the species in Welsh waters. “We have already asked anglers and netsmen to voluntarily release the salmon they catch and we feel it’s time to introduce further controls on fishing for salmon and sea trout. “We have been discussing how fish stocks can be improved with Local Fisheries Groups (LFGs) across the country for more than 18 months and we are now keen to find out what the wider public thinks. “A briefing setting out the current issues around the status of our salmon and sea trout stocks in Wales and the likely need in future for new controls on catches by both net and rod fisheries, as well as information on how you can have your say can be found on our website naturalresources.wales/catchcontrols2017.” In addition measures to ensure released fish have the best chance of survival, including the use of barbless hooks, a ban on treble hooks and use of bait, are also being considered. The consultation begins on August 22, 2017 and runs until November 14, 2017. The proposals include:
Fish stocks in 23 salmon rivers and 33 sea trout rivers are assessed annually in Wales NRW believes that these steps are vital after assessments for 2016 continued to show that 21 of the 23 salmon rivers are failing to reach their management target and are either ‘at risk’ or ‘probably at risk’. For sea trout two thirds (21 of the 33) of rivers assessed are vulnerable and require additional protection. Ceri added: “After carefully considering the wide ranging views and evidence, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot continue to take salmon while stocks are in such a perilous state “We have not taken the decision to call for these changes lightly and we realise that these measures on their own will not resolve the complex issue of declining salmon stocks. “We want to work with the angling and net fishing communities to protect our fish and fisheries for future generations to enjoy and the introduction of new controls will be a positive step in helping protect stock.”
Tourism and hospitality businesses in Mid Wales are being given a chance to discover how to make their website perform better to increase sales and profits.
‘Getting more sales from your website’ is the theme of a training course being organised by Tourism Growth in partnership with MWT Cymru at the Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells on October 4 from 10.30am to 4.30pm. It’s the second training course run by the partnership, which held a successful inaugural course on the topic ‘Boostin your sales on social media’ at Aberystwyth University in Junes. MWT Cymru is an independent organisation representing around 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Mid, South and West Wales. Courses, which are held in Wales and at other locations including Bristol, Bath and Cheltenham, are available to MWT Cymru members at a preferential 30 per cent discount. The Llandrindod Wells course is aimed at tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses who may be thinking of updating their website or are frustrated that their current site isn’t giving them the brand presence or direct bookings that they desire. The course costs £89 plus vat for MWT Cymru members, which is a saving of £40 plus vat on the normal price. Non-members will be charge £129 plus vat. Val Hawkins, chief executive of MWT Cymru, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Tourism Growth and to be able to offer training courses of such quality to our members. “The courses are business specific and completely focused on helping members to increase sales and profits. They are run by tourism sector specialists who have a breadth of experience, knowledge and best practice from working with tourism employers – especially smaller independent businesses – all around the UK. “Tourism Growth’s courses fit perfectly with our aims and objectives at MWT Cymru: supporting our members to take advantage of every opportunity to market their businesses more effectively to a wider audience – particularly online – and helping them to build reputation, increase profits and enhance the overall quality and attractiveness of Wales as a great destination.” For more information about the courses contact Tourism Growth on Tel: 01923 465522, email bookings@tourismgrowth.co.uk or MWT Cymru on Tel: 01654 702653 Ends For more information please contact either Val Hawkins, Mid Wales Tourism chief executive, on 01654 702653 or Duncan Foulkes, public relations consultant, on 01686 650818. Some of you may recall that post Brexit, September last 2016, we sent out a brief electronic survey to some selected WTA Members to gauge the mood music and establish whether there had been a significant effect on member businesses. Back then of course, it was not long since the June 23rd 2016 vote and prior to a then un-called General Election.
With overwhelming support from our members voting to support our Tourism Manifesto, drawn up prior to the General election, (8th June 2017), we decided to repeat most of the questions of September to establish whether there had been any significant changes in our members perception of the BREXIT effect. So in brief, a quick summary of our findings where we asked the following: Amongst the most important issues facing the industry, ranked in order (not including BREXIT) - Transport infrastructure; Superfast Broadband; a reduction in regulation and a reduction in VAT. Interestingly, not so important this time was encouraging inbound tourism, this response maybe in the following Brexit Question: In your experience has the fall in the exchange rate resulted in additional overseas visitors? 50% reported a clearly identifiable or at least marginal increase. From your own business perspective and your knowledge of others in the industry, has the vote to leave the EU bloc affected business profitability over the last six months compared to the same period in 2015/16? 30% responded that they thought profits had dropped, in September, early days of course, no discernible drop was reported at all. 60% (as against 70%) stated that investment decisions have not been affected by the vote. More surprisingly, confidence in the ability of the UK being able to negotiate a good deal for Wales has improved, in September less than 20% felt confident, this has risen to 40%, however that still leaves a majority 60% who don't feel confident! We also took the opportunity to sound out members on some taxation issues. Do you think proposals to devolve taxation powers from UK Central Government to Wales are going to be, positive, negative or make no difference. 55% thought competitively negative, a slight fall from 60%. Do you think the proposal to introduce a new Tourism Tax would have a significant negative impact on tourism in Wales? Unsurprisingly 80% felt it would have a negative effect. Finally, we asked what do you feel most concerned about moving forward. The response - rising costs and a slowing economy. . BEIS has published a long-awaited Consultation on the Package Travel Regulations (PTR) that will transpose the requirements of the 2015 European Package Travel Directive into UK law. This new Directive aims to provide clearer and more comprehensive protection for holidaymakers by updating the scope of protection to cover modern industry practices such as dynamic packaging and “click-through” arrangements where the customer, on completion of one part element (eg., a flight) then clicks through to another site to purchase another element (eg accommodation). Specifically, BEIS are inviting comments on the following issues:
Whilst we all support the protection of the consumer and greater clarity around the provision of that protection, we have always had an issue with the detrimental impact the EU PTRs have on Wales based businesses wanting to work together to provide “added-value products” to customers which do not include travel. For example paying to stay in a self-catering cottage and gaining a day's free entry to a local health club to use their private facilities such as a pool or gym. The consultation document which can be accessed here states: “The UK Government recognises that there is a need to introduce stronger consumer protection to address this gap (new technologies and booking methods) and it is important that we implement changes irrespective of our exit from the European Union. Or cut and paste the following into your web browser... https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/updating-consumer-protection-in-the-package-travel-sector The Migration Advisory Committee has published a call for evidence A briefing paper has also been produced on EU immigration and highlights the importance of EU labour for the Tourism industry with the second highest number of EU nationals working in the food and beverage sector and 10th highest working in the accommodation sector. The accommodation sector has the second highest percentage of EU workers (18%) and the food and beverage sector has the 5th highest percentage of EU workers (11%). Tourism will be one of the sectors most impacted by removing freedom of movement.
To recap...In the Government’s Command Paper Legislating for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, the Repeal Bill will convert EU-derived law into UK law as it stands at the moment at which we leave the EU. Without further change, this would mean that the free movement of EU citizens to the UK would continue, albeit as part of UK law. The Government have therefore committed to introduce to Parliament an Immigration Bill to repeal the current EU-derived free movement provisions so as to be able, on our exit from the EU, to bring EU citizens fully within the scope of UK law. This will mean that, in future, the Govt. will be able to apply different immigration rules and requirements according to the UK’s economic and social needs at the time, including on any implementation arrangements following the UK’s departure. The call for evidence itself calls for a wide range of evidence under three main headings: EEA Migration Trends; Recruitment Practices, Training & Skills; Economic, Social and Fiscal Impacts The deadline for submitting evidence is 27 October 2017. Documentation - https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-and-briefing-note-eea-workers-in-the-uk-labour-market The Home Office has launched a short consultation on a proposal to end the requirement for non-EEA passengers to present a paper landing card on arrival into the UK from 1st October 2017. Instead, the information that used to be gained from landing cards will be collected via Advanced Passenger Information requirements. The consultation states that landing cards are simply to collect data for statistical purposes. This is somewhat counter to the explanations in the past that have stated they were required for security purposes.
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