How local lockdowns are putting the region’s tourism firms on a knife edge
Businesses that rely on visitors from outside their county have seen a huge impact since local lockdown restrictions started to come into force across South Wales. Lydia Stephens reports...
IT HAS been more thatn four weeks since the first Welsh county entered local lockdown.
Unlike the five-mile rule that was in place during the nationwide lockdown, local lockdown rules mean that those in the county are not allowed leave the area, and no one from outside the local authority is allowed to enter.
With almost all of South Wales in local lockdown, and half of North Wales too, businesses that depend on visitors from outside their local area are being hit hard by the rules.
Bike Park Wales, the UK’s first fullscale mountain bike park, estimates 99% of its visitors come from outside its council area.
The mountain bike park attracts visitors from all over the UK as well as Europe and is situated in Merthyr Tydfil, which has been in local lockdown since September 22.
As a result, the bike park decided to shut on September 21.
A statement published on the attraction’s website said: “We are devastated to announce that due to the localised lockdown announced in Merthyr Tydfil today we are left with no option but to close the park again until restrictions are eased.
“Merthyr is the smallest borough in Wales and over 99% of our visiting riders come from outside of the borough. As they can no longer legally visit us we are left with no choice.”
Other outdoor activity centres in lockdown areas are also facing the same issues.
Carlyn Treloar, the office manager at Taff Valley Quad Bike and Activity Centre in Upper Boat, near Pontypridd, said over more than a fortnight’s worth of business was cancelled almost overnight when Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) went into lockdown more than two weeks ago.
“Out of around 30 bookings, we had three groups left, only three groups within RCT that could still come to us,” she said.
“When the local restrictions came in, our diary literally went to nothing again.”
The activity centre provides a range of activities on a farm in Upper Boat, from quad biking, archery, clay shooting and axe throwing as well as muddy assault courses.
Carlyn explained when the activity centre reopened in July they started to receive more bookings and got busy again, but due to restrictions on households mixing, the bookings were smaller, which meant more work for less income.
“We were starting to have enquiries for bigger groups of eight to 10 people, but that dried up overnight.
“The majority of people who visit us are not from the area. So many people don’t even know we are here.”
The activity centre has been running for 27 years and Carlyn has been there for 17 years.
One difficult aspect with the fall in customers for the business is figuring out what to do with the staff.
Carlyn explained that due to the nature of the activities, the staff they employ have a range of specialist skills so they need to rota in staff members based on the activities customers want each day.
“On top of people not being able to travel to the area, you then have the cancellations from people who have symptoms or have been told to selfisolate.”
In an attempt to increase the amount of people who can use the attraction, the business is hoping it can move part of the business – quad bikes – to some of its land which actually falls into the Caerphilly borough.
Carlyn explained that way they can have customers from both RCT and Caerphilly.
“In July and August we had customers from all over, Ireland, England, Scotland,” she said.
“We had no problems, everything went fine, and now we can’t even have them from half an hour away.
“We only need to have the business from South Wales.”
One part of the business before Covid-19 included arranging activity weekends for stag and hen parties and other ocassions. Carlyn said this hasn’t been able to return since the reopening and can’t see it happening anytime soon.
“There are a lot of people in the Valleys who don’t see us as a tourism place, but we are. There is so much to offer locally and that has been growing in recent years.
“It is going to take us years to get over this.”
The business is urging people from RCT to consider visiting not only them but also other local businesses who would usually rely on customers from outside the borough.
Local lockdown seems to have put most tourist attractions on pause just as they attempt to claw back remaining business from the peak season.
In Cardiff, the popular attraction Techniquest has delayed its reopening by a month as local lockdown restrictions came into place in the capital.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said: “We have already put government safety measures in place, but with the news of a local lockdown, we realise that many of our visitors who have pre-booked for October visits will no longer be able to travel and will have to re-schedule their visit with us.”
A new date for the reopening has now been set for November 14.