Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill

The Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill has been referred to the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the general principles of the Bill.

 

The information on this page provides more detail about what the Committee is looking at and how you can share your views.

 

About the Bill

The Bill aims to promote the development of tourism in Wales, and if passed will:

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>>>restate and modernise the Welsh Ministers' functions of promoting tourism in Wales, while requiring them to have regard to the potential social impact of tourism and its potential impact on the environment and the Welsh language;

>>>regulate the provision of visitor accommodation in Wales by:

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***introducing a licensing regime to reassure visitors that accommodation meets the standards they would expect and aligning those standards, in the case of self-catering accommodation, more closely with corresponding standards already applicable to the private rented sector in Wales,

***making a standard in relation to the fitness of visitor accommodation a contractual requirement, and

***building on the register created by the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025 to establish a visitor accommodation directory for the purpose of providing information to the public about visitor accommodation in Wales.

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Terms of reference

To inform its scrutiny, the Committee is considering:

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>>>The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and whether there is a need for legislation to deliver the Bill’s stated policy objective, which is to promote the development of tourism in Wales as set out above.

>>>The Bill’s provisions, including whether they are workable and will deliver the stated policy intention.

>>>Any potential barriers to the implementation of the Bill’s provisions.

>>>Whether there are any unintended consequences arising from the Bill.

>>>The Welsh Government’s assessment of the financial and other impacts of the Bill as set out in Part 2 of the Explanatory Memorandum.

>>>The appropriateness of the powers in the Bill for Welsh Ministers to make subordinate legislation (as set out in Part 1: Chapter 5 of the Explanatory Memorandum).

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How to share your views

We want to make sure that our work is informed by experiences and views that reflect the diversity of the people and communities affected by these issues.

 

We encourage anyone with expertise or experience of these issues to share your views, with the full knowledge that your views will be welcomed and valued.

 

To submit your views, please complete the online form. The closing date for sharing your views is 16.00 on Monday 17 November.

 

Overview of the analytical methodology

All responses received through this consultation will be analysed using a mixed methods approach.

 

We will analyse text with the support of Natural Language Processing (NLP) software. The purpose of this approach is to enable us to efficiently analyse the growing number of responses to this consultation over time. This approach gives the Senedd opportunities to be more flexible in analysing the consultation responses, drawing out themes, sentiment and key messages for individual subject committees based on their areas of interest.

 

While the NLP tool will assist in identifying themes, research analysts will still provide the most significant input in terms of analysing and reviewing all consultation responses and quality assuring the themes coming from the NLP. The NLP will not make any decisions about individuals or individual responses and is only accessible to limited members of the research team.

 

Providing Written Evidence

The Senedd has two official languages, Welsh and English.

 

In line with the Senedd’s Official Languages Scheme, the Committee welcomes contributions in both or either of our official languages, and we ask organisations that are subject to Welsh Language standards or schemes to respond in line with their own obligations. Please inform the Committee when submitting responses if you intend to provide a translation at a later date.

 

Please see guidance for those providing evidence for committees.

 

Disclosure of information

Please ensure that you have considered the Senedd’s policy on disclosure of information before submitting information to the Committee.