Part of 2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 19 July 2017.
Ken Skates
Labour
1:34,
19 July 2017
Yes, I appreciate the points made by the Member. The challenge of getting international visitors out of London is one that faces all regions outside of London. Wales is not unique in that regard. But we have redoubled our efforts to attract visitors to Wales, and the results, I think, are quite impressive, in terms of all types of visits. We saw an increase of 15 per cent last year on the previous year. In terms of day visits, we’ve seen numbers increase to above 103 million last year, and, in terms of international visitors, trips were up last year by 10.8 per cent compared with the year before. In terms of spend, which is really what matters to businesses in the visitor economy, the sums that were spent increased by more than 8 per cent. It is now a fact that, when visitors come to Wales on day trips, they now spend more per head than is the UK average. But we don’t want to rest there—we want to continue to attract more international visitors to Wales and that’s why we’re increasing our marketing activities, making sure that we attend more travel expos abroad, bringing in more tourism experts and travel writers on familiarity trips, to get more people interested in the incredible offer that we have in our country.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.