Tourism Industry Update
Please follow the news reports and for latest advice regularly visit the Public Health Wales website and the Business Wales website
BULLETIN CONTENTS: COVID-19 workplace testing; Rules for international travel to and from Wales; Return to Quality Grading Assessments; Opportunities: Leisure Travel Trade and Business Events; Wales Tourism Business Barometer; Webinar: International consumer tracker survey results; World Mental Health Day; Incentives for businesses to recruit apprentices further extended; Written Statement: The legislative response by the Welsh Ministers to the coronavirus pandemic
COVID-19 workplace testing
The Welsh Government support for regular asymptomatic testing in private and public sector workplaces in Wales, focuses on workplaces with more than 10 employees that cannot work from home.
The workplace testing programme is designed to be used as a surveillance tool to support regular asymptomatic testing. This should be undertaken twice a week for those staff wishing to participate. This can be any x2 days of the week of your choosing in line with your individual business needs / staff shifts or rota’s. The Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) outlines both the supervised workplace testing and the workplace collect models (where staff would test at home and report via the online government portal).
Support is available for organisations in Wales to introduce a testing scheme. Find out details on Gov.Wales.
Workplace testing benefits
- Provides a workplace led public health risk based approach using workforce intelligence to reduce the spread of the virus.
- Introduces regular asymptomatic testing capacity within the workplace based on a hybrid model that offers supervised testing sites and self-test kits.
- Provides regular testing of employees to find and isolate positive cases quickly and prevent further transmission, this usually includes the workforce being tested once or twice a week
- Identifies cases from individuals showing no symptoms and removes them from the workplace and prevent further transmission.
- Provides additional reassurances to the workforce unable to work from home
Find out further information on the COVID-19 workplace testing framework and if you have any questions on the framework or wish to discuss further, please contact: Covid19.WorkplaceTesting@gov.wales.
Rules for international travel to and from Wales: coronavirus
The rules governing what you must do when arriving in Wales from overseas have changed from 4am on 4 October 2021.
From the 4 October you qualify as fully vaccinated if you are vaccinated:
- under an approved vaccination programme in the UK, Europe, USA or UK vaccine programme overseas
- with a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
You must have had a complete course of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before you arrive in Wales.
People arriving in Wales, from a country not on the red list, who are fully vaccinated must:
It is advisable to check the latest up to date guidance before travel.
Return to Quality Grading Assessments
After a suspension in grading visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quality Assurance team will be resuming their duties over the coming weeks.
Much thought has been given to how we can return to assessing properties as safely as possible not only for the Quality Grading team but also for the tourism business.
As you will appreciate, the Quality Advisors will have a considerable backlog of telephone calls to make, and because of this, it is felt that the best way to move forward and re start the grading process is, on an initial ‘trial basis’, to contact those businesses who have applied for quality grading for the very first time. However, please be reassured, that we will be coming out to visit all properties in due course.
We really do understand that this has been the most unprecedented period of time for all tourism businesses in Wales, but we really would be grateful for your patience and cooperation at this time as we look forward to coming to visit your businesses once again in the future.
In order to support businesses as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no charge for participation in our quality schemes for the foreseeable future (apart from where the costs for overnight grading visits and entry fees, use of food and drink outlets, etc. for tourist attraction assessments will need to be covered by the business).
If you are a new business or if you were previously graded and would like to participate in quality grading once more, please email quality.tourism@gov.wales.
Opportunities: Leisure Travel Trade and Business Events – interest high and places limited
ITB Berlin 2022, 9-13 March 2022: Registration open
Join the VisitBritain Stand at ITB Berlin - the world's largest travel trade fair - and an effective platform to meet with a comprehensive range of global businesses and engage with consumers.
Register now for ITB Berlin 2022, which will offer the chance to meet in-person and provide exposure to German buyers. (VisitBritain Co-Exhibitor package is £1,000)
ExploreGB Virtual, 21-24 March 2022: Applications open
Take part in the flagship leisure trade event which will virtually host over 350 key international hand-picked buyers.
All attendees will have access to three full and flexible days of self-selected virtual appointments on 22-24 March, a wealth of digital and downloadable resources and the opportunity to create bespoke exhibitors' resource booths. ExploreGB also features a dedicated day (on 21 March) for you to meet 1-2-1 and access support from our in-market representatives, PR and Business Support teams. The event is free for all those eligible to attend. Find out more and submit your application.
IBTM World 2021, 30 November–2 December 2021: Register your interest
Taking place at the Fira Barcelona Gran Via in Barcelona on 30 November to 2 December, IBTM World is well established as one of the leading trade shows for the meetings, incentives, conferences, events and business travel industry.
Find out more and register your interest to be a stand partner on the MeetEngland stand.
MeetGB Virtual 2022, 15 & 17 February 2022: Registrations open mid October
MeetGB Virtual 2022 has been transformed and re-designed to educate international meeting and event planners on the UK’s extensive business events offering.
UK suppliers will be able to meet virtually with international buyers through one-to-one settings via a dedicated digital platform.
The online conference will be split across two days to accommodate different time zones, starting with buyers from Europe and the UK on 15 February followed by North American buyers on 17 February.
Registrations will open mid-October. Find out more.
Wales Tourism Business Barometer
The Wales Tourism Business Barometer provides a ‘snapshot’ of industry performance after important points in the tourism calendar.
Findings for the summer period 2021 are now available which show:
- About half (48%) of operators have had more customers compared to a normal (pre-COVID) summer, about a third (31%) have had the same, and 21% have had fewer.
- All four regions of Wales have been busier than normal (pre-COVID) this summer, but South West Wales particularly so. 56% of businesses in this region have had more customers this summer compared to normal.
- Nearly all (97%) businesses are choosing to maintain some safety measures voluntarily that they are no longer required to maintain by law. There are many types of measure being maintained – most commonly hand sanitisers (87% of those maintaining measures), extra cleaning (65%) and social distancing (54%) There is a general sense of operators still wanting to do what they can to keep COVID at bay, even if it impacts on profit.
- Three in five (60%) say that COVID has prompted them to make permanent changes in how they run their business, with a further 22% not yet knowing. The most common changes are continued deep cleaning (29%) and continued acceptance of pre-bookings (15%).
- About half (48%) of businesses have more advance bookings for the remainder of 2021 than they would normally have at this time of year, and 35% have the same level.
Webinar: International consumer tracker survey results – Wave 3
Join us on Wednesday 13 October 11.00am-12.30pm for a session reviewing the latest data on international consumer sentiment from the international consumer tracker survey undertaken by Visit Britain and Visit Wales in August and September. This session will give you insights focusing on inbound markets and recovery. Register on the VisitBritain website.
World Mental Health Day: 10 October 2021
World Mental Health Day celebrates awareness for the global community in an empathetic way, with a unifying voice, helping those feel hopeful by empowering them to take action and to create lasting change.
Mental health problems can affect anyone, any day of the year, but 10 October is a great day to show your support for better mental health and start looking after your own wellbeing.
You can find more details on the Business Wales website.
Incentives for businesses to recruit apprentices further extended by Welsh Government
Welsh Government is further extending incentives to support businesses in recruiting apprentices in Wales until February 2022.
The Apprenticeship Employer Incentive Scheme is a key part of Welsh Government’s COVID-19 Commitment to support businesses and workers in recovering from the impacts of coronavirus.
A total of £18.7 million was allocated to support the scheme in 2021 to 2022.
Find out more on Gov.Wales.
Written Statement: The legislative response by the Welsh Ministers to the coronavirus pandemic
The Welsh Government has published a report on its legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic. It covers the period from 10 August 2020 to 31 August 2021 – See Coronavirus pandemic legislation: 10 August 2020 to 31 August 2021.
Read more on Gov.Wales.
Useful COVID-19 information
As each premises is different, businesses should read all guidance. This continues to be updated so please check back regularly for the latest information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
