Coronavirus: Tourism Industry Update

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News for the Tourism Industry in Wales

17 July 2020


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Coronavirus: Tourism Industry Update

The situation is developing quickly. Please follow the news reports and for latest advice regularly visit the Public Health Wales website and the Business Wales website


BULLETIN CONTENTS - Addo. My promise to Wales; Beware! Potential Visit Wales telephone call scam; Contact tracing; Webinar: Contact Tracing Update;  Self-Employment Income Support Scheme; Government Visitor Economy Guidance; COVID-19 UK Tourism Consumer Tracker Survey; Free Recovery Advice for Business; Register your establishment for the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme; We’re Good to Go – free scheme for tourism and hospitality businesses;  Preparing Bilingual Safety Signage; Transport for Wales - is your train journey essential?; £9m to support town centres recover from the Coronavirus pandemic announced; International Travel Regulations. 


“Addo. My promise to Wales”

As Wales’ tourism industry starts to re-open, our key communication message is ‘Visit Wales. Safely.’ This is a simple phrase that can be adapted for your business or local area, to encourage people to be responsible during their visit. We’ll be continuing with this messaging throughout the season. 

The focus of our messaging is a pledge that we’re encouraging everyone travelling around Wales to get behind, to do the little things that make a big difference. To make a promise together, to ‘Addo’ as we prepare to start exploring again, to care for each other, our land and for our communities. The pledge can be signed virtually on www.visitwales.com/promise.

Get involved

We’re working on a handy toolkit to make it even easier for you to get involved, which will be ready and shared imminently. In the meantime download our pledge on a page and our poster, and explore our new content online. Share your pledges with us on social using #addo #VisitWalesSafely.

Diolch for your continued support.


Beware! Potential Visit Wales telephone call scam

We have recently been made aware of a number of suspicious phone calls being made to businesses in Wales, from someone claiming to be offering an enhanced entry on the Visit Wales website at a reduced rate, ranging from £5.99 - £9.99.

Visit Wales does not offer such a service or any promotion of this kind.  If you receive a phone call like this, please do not give out any personal information and report it to Action Fraud - www.actionfraud.police.uk/


Contact tracing

The Welsh Government’s Test, Trace, Protect strategy will be key in controlling the spread of new outbreaks as lockdown restrictions ease.  As people increasingly come into greater contact with others, there is a higher risk of transmitting COVID-19 in some sectors. This is because customers and visitors will spend a longer time on these premises than in other surroundings, and will potentially come into close contact with people outside of their household.

For businesses operating in these sectors, new policy guidance from the Welsh Government was published last week and describes the important role that businesses play in supporting contact tracing and keeping Wales safe and includes information on what will happen if a visitor, customer or member of staff displays symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19.


Webinar: Contact Tracing Update

Contact tracing is an essential part of our Test, Trace Protect strategy and is a tried and tested method of controlling the spread of infectious diseases by breaking the link in transmission. The purpose is to provide real time intelligence on the coverage of the disease, establish how quickly it is spreading, and where there are hotspots of infection.

In Wales we have a robust public health system delivered by local health boards and local authorities with significant expertise in contact tracing which puts us in a strong position to respond to this pandemic.  The challenge now is to scale up our contact tracing capacity to levels not seen before, in order to quickly trace potentially tens of thousands of new contacts every day.  We will utilise strong partnership working and collaborative action to achieve this in Wales.

In order to understand what this means for you, Sharon West, from the Welsh Government Test Trace and Protect team, and Dr Giri Shankar, from Public Health Wales, are delivering a webinar which will provide a ‘walk through’ of the contact tracing system in Wales. 

This webinar, delivered via MS Teams, will take place Friday 24 July, 11:30 – 12:30.  Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

If you are interested in joining this event, please register your attendance at: Covid19ContactTracing@gov.wales

A link to the meeting will be sent when you accept the meeting.

Following this session any questions or comments submitted on the Q&A will be anonymised and stored on our records management systems. We will keep the files in line with the review dates in our retention and disposal schedule.


Welsh Government Visitor Economy Guidance

The Welsh Government has published comprehensive, overarching guidance on the phased re-opening of the visitor economy which includes pubs, bars and restaurants.

This Welsh Government overarching guidance signposts operators to more detailed guidance published by UK Hospitality Cymru.  The UKH Reopening Guidance for Hospitality in Wales has been agreed by, and includes additional guidance produced by the Welsh Government.


Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has been updated with a number of changes. Visit the Business Wales website for more information.


COVID-19 UK Tourism Consumer Tracker Survey

The latest weekly report from our UK Consumer Tracker survey is now available on the Visit Britain website  showing week 8 findings covering 6 - 10 July. This provides the latest results of attitudes and intentions to take holidays in the UK and Wales this year.  A detailed report on the profile of visitors planning to visit Wales has also been published on Welsh Government website.


Register your establishment for the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme

Businesses can use the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme to offer a discount to diners and encourage them to eat at your restaurant. Details about the scheme and eligibility can be found on the Business Wales website.


We’re Good to Go – free scheme for tourism and hospitality businesses

The “We’re Good To Go” industry standard mark is a self-assessment scheme that has been designed in partnership with the national organisations (Visit Wales, Tourism Northern Ireland, Visit Scotland and Visit England) to provide reassurance for all sectors of the tourism industry, as well as reassurance to visitors, that businesses have clear processes in place and are following industry and Government COVID-19 guidance.

The scheme is free to join and open to all businesses across the industry.

It will be a core part of Visit Wales messaging to consumers over coming weeks.


Free Recovery Advice for Business

The Professional and Business Services Sector and Enterprise Nation, supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, have teamed up to offer small and medium sized businesses free advice to help them recover from the impact of Coronavirus. Visit the Business Wales website for more information.  


Preparing bilingual safety signage

With the high street gradually re-opening many of us are thinking about returning to normality bit by bit. Everyone is doing their best to look after the safety of their staff and service users.  Visit the Business Wales website for more details.


Transport for Wales - Is your train journey essential?

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, Transport for Wales are advising that customers only use the train services if their journey is essential, or if they have no other means for travel. This is due to social distancing measures, so that they can comfortably accommodate key workers and those with essential needs. For more information, visit the Transport for Wales website.


£9m to support town centres recover from the Coronavirus pandemic announced

The Welsh Government has made up to £9 million available to support town centres recover from the Coronavirus pandemic.

Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government, Hannah Blythyn has announced up to £5.3 million from the Transforming Towns programme will be used to fund adaptions in town centres to support traders and improve public safety in response to coronavirus.

You can read the full press release at Gov.Wales.


International Travel Regulations

At the request of the UK Government the Welsh Government has agreed to amend The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Wales) Regulations 2020 to exempt travellers from a list of countries from the quarantine requirements put in place by the regulations. Find out more in the Written Statement: International Travel Regulations.


Stay up to date with tourism industry news

We are committed to providing the support and assurance the business community needs during these unprecedented difficult times and have issued several Coronavirus (COVID-19) related bulletins which can be found on the Tourism Industry Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bulletins page.


Business Wales is providing businesses with tailored support and advice about dealing with coronavirus, from financial and supply chain planning to advice on staffing issues. We would advise Tourism businesses and stakeholders in Wales wanting specific guidance to visit the Business Wales website or call Business Wales helpline on 03000 6 03000, and to regularly visit the Public Health Wales website for up-to-date public health information for you, your staff and your visitors.


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