Again, my congratulations to you on your new post. I'll miss you here, turning around, when you're blaming the UK Government. [Laughter.]

8. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the visitor levy? OQ60900

We're proceeding with the legislative proposals for the visitor levy. The process to develop legislation and the impact assessments are ongoing. We continue to engage extensively with the tourism sector, local authorities and others as this work progresses.

Thank you. We're all aware that, in your consultation, a resounding Majority of those in the tourist industry came back and said, 'No, we do not want a tourism tax or a visitor levy.' Now, we, on these benches, the Welsh Conservatives, fully support our businesses. We realise they create jobs, they're a vital part of our economy—indeed, to the tune of £5 billion. According to a survey by the Wales Tourism Alliance, 70 per cent of visitors have now said they would consider going on holiday to another country. Is that really what you feel proud of as a Minister for our economy?

In my Constituency of Aberconwy, the only industry is tourism. It is the bedrock of the local economy. This tax wrongly penalises those communities that are reliant on visitor footfall—and that's not day visitors, it's people using all those numerous beds that we have in Aberconwy. Why are you, as the Welsh Government, so keen to impose yet another tax on an industry that is still struggling to recover from COVID, feels let down by the fact that you've cut the business rates tax relief, and you just don't get it, as a Government, that, by supporting our private businesses, they employ more people, there's a bigger tax take and, ultimately, that ends up with us having better public services? Diolch.

Well, of course, the decision whether or not to introduce a tourism levy will be taken by the local authority and they will be best placed to know what's best for their local area. But the purpose of a tourism levy would be to enable and support that local authority to support a vibrant local visitor economy, which I know is what we all want see across all parties here in the Chamber.

We have undertaken significant research—I was referencing a couple of those pieces of research to one of your colleagues earlier on this afternoon—but, in addition to that, we've undertaken some consumer research to understand what the views of Welsh residents were, but, also UK domestic holiday customers, on a potential visitor levy, and explored visitors' opinions on whether they should contribute and whether their behaviour would change if a visitor levy was there. More than 2,500 respondents completed the survey, over 1,000 of whom lived in Wales, and the results reflected broad support for the principle of a visitor levy. It found respondents to the survey were more positive than negative when introduced to the concept of a visitor levy in a place where they go on holiday or in their own area. So, I think that it's something that I think both people who live locally who can see the impact of tourism on their communities and a desire to improve the tourism offer, they recognise it, but, also, people who go on holiday recognise that they're able to make a contribution to those communities.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary.