ONE of the UK’s largest holiday park operators who run Brynowen in Borth have welcomed comments over the potential return of visitors by Easter.

Parkdean Resorts, who run Brynowen Holiday Park in Borth along with several other sites across the country, employing almost 800 staff, has been working alongside UK Hospitality and a group of the largest operators of static caravan and lodge holiday park businesses in the UK to call on the Welsh Government to Save the Easter Holidays and help rebuild the Welsh Economy.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast last week, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the Welsh Government was looking at the possibility of some "limited" re-opening of self-contained accommodation only.

This year, Easter falls on the first weekend of April, with Good Friday on 2 April.

Mr Drakeford said: "We are looking at opening places where people don’t mix with other people, where there aren’t shared facilities.

"That is how we began the re-opening of tourism in Wales last year. If we can bring that forward to Easter I know that will be some relief to many hundreds of thousands of families in Wales. Six weeks is a very long time, so we will have to make that final decision closer to the time."

He said the partial re-opening of tourism would include B&B’s and hotels with room service as long as they are self-contained.

Reacting to the comments, a spokesperson for Parkdean Resorts said: “The First Minister’s comments are good news for Wales, particularly the coastal regions, whose local economies are so dependent on tourism.

“Easter is a make-or-break time of year for us, and for the local suppliers who depend on us and our holidaymakers, and we proved last year we could give visitors a safe, much-needed break to the beautiful Welsh coast with lots of fresh air.

“As a group of holiday park operators, we employ 2,415 people directly in Wales, and support thousands more jobs indirectly and via local supply chains. Our staff live local to our parks, and we provide the customer base for numerous other businesses in the surrounding areas, including local farms and food suppliers, pubs, restaurants, visitor attractions, shops and gardens.

“Throughout 2020, holiday parks went over and above to eliminate the risk of transmission on our sites, including thorough on-site cleaning and social distancing requirements, and rigorous registration protocols to support effective contact tracing. These efforts have demonstrated the safety of our services, and across Wales last year, our group of holiday park operators recorded just 10 Covid cases out of 197,939 visitors.

“Our parks are COVID-safe, and benefit from rural, isolated locations. They are not located in densely populated urban areas, which makes it easier for people to avoid close social proximity, and all units are located at least 5m away from each other and enjoy their own services and facilities, which allows our customers and owners to be independent. Each unit is separate with no shared doors or communal areas and they are, in our view, more suited to social distancing/isolation than many flats, shared houses or terraced houses.”