Will the Minister explain how the Welsh Government plans to support and revitalise the tourism and hospitality sectors in North Wales, especially in light of the proposed 35 point drop in business rate relief?
Our tourism and hospitality strategy, Welcome to Wales, highlights our approach to growing tourism and hospitality for the good of our visitors and our communities.
In North Wales, as in every region of Wales, we are supporting the sector in line with this strategy. Visit Wales provides capital investment funding, marketing campaigns and other support for activities to boost the contribution of tourism and hospitality to the local north Wales economy.
In addition to the sector specific support available from Visit Wales and Business Wales, in 2024-25 businesses will be able to benefit from a new £20 million capital fund from Welsh Government, which is designed to help them future-proof their businesses.
Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses across Wales will receive a fifth successive year of support in 2024-25 to pay their non-domestic rates bills. Eligible ratepayers will receive 40% non-domestic rates relief, which will be capped at £110,000 per business across Wales. This builds on £1bn of support provided through our retail, leisure and hospitality rates relief schemes since 2020-21.
This targeted relief is in addition to our permanent relief schemes, which are worth £250m a year.