Sustainable Tourism

Speech by Peter Black delivered to Plenary on Tue 17th Jun 2008

Peter Black: Alun Davies referred to our previous debates on tourism. I note that we had a debate in February on cultural tourism and that we are now having a debate on sustainable tourism, but I do not think that we will have a debate on dress tourism, Alun, although it is worth noting that the shopping experience is an important part of the facilities and attractions that we offer people in Wales. Anyone going to places such as Narberth, and the other small towns and villages around Wales that have high-quality shops, will know how attractive those shops are to the many people who go out of their way to travel to them to experience the pleasures that they offer.

The point that I was trying to make in referring to previous debates was that we have separated these two strands of tourism. We had a debate on cultural tourism, and now we are talking about sustainable tourism, and yet the two are very much interlinked. I do not fully understand why we are having separate debates about these strands of tourism, important though they are, when the tourism package is best viewed as a whole. We cannot really tell people that we want them to come and take a sustainable holiday in Wales without mentioning the cultural assets that will attract them. For example, someone coming to Wales for a walking holiday may choose to walk to particular venues that have historic monuments, shops or other assets. We cannot just say that this is one part of the tourism package; it has to be taken as a whole. That is why I find it strange that it has been divided up in this way for the purposes of the debate.

I find it stranger still, having listened to what the Minister has had to say in the previous debate and in this one, to learn that there is not a great deal that is new being offered to us by the Welsh Assembly Government in either strand of the tourism package. Yes, there is extra money for marketing, which is much to be welcomed, and it is important that we get our marketing strategy right and target it at the people who will take advantage of the Welsh product. It is important that we have the resources to do that, and I welcome that. However, at the end of the day, we are just discussing two aspects of the tourism package that is already on offer: the cultural side and the environmentally friendly side. Nothing new is being offered at all, and so I hope that the next time we have a debate on tourism, we do so in the light of a particular policy that the Government is offering, or even a new direction in which the Government wishes to take tourism. There might even be a vision for tourism that is different from what we have always done, and is something that we aspire to do slightly better. That is the problem that I have with the motion today.

Having said that, and to address the issue of sustainability, we have to recognise that transport and tourism account for 17 per cent of the current Welsh ecological footprint. Air travel is the most rapidly increasing sector, given that an estimated 1,136,000 visits were made to Wales by overseas residents in 2006. Travel and transport choices define the nature of our tourism, whether visitors come here by plane, by car, or by public transport. Just as you cannot separate the different strands of the tourism package, you cannot separate tourism from the package of economic development, particularly our transport policies in Wales. It is important that we invest in public transport if we are to make tourism in Wales that much more sustainable.

Tourists spend a huge amount of money in Wales, and we need to recognise that and take advantage of it. However, if tourism is to be more sustainable, we must ensure that tourists travel to and within Wales in a more sustainable way. That applies to walking destinations, too. Rhosili in the Gower, for example, has about 0.5 million visits a year. The management of that facility must be geared towards ensuring that all the footsteps across the various paths do not erode in that area of outstanding natural beauty, and that we do not lose the ancient strip farms just the other side of the dry stone wall, if you can find them, as you walk down to Worm's Head. All that has to be preserved and protected, and so there has to be significant investment in ensuring that the tourism product that we take advantage of does not destroy the very environment that tourists are coming to see.