I am sure that many of you will be aware that Skomer and Skokholm have remained closed for day and residential visitors this season. A small team have remained isolated on the island to protect the breeding seabirds and conduct essential research and monitoring.
We face a period of uncertainty for 2021. If the situation remains the same with regard to the Coronavirus, the challenges will also remain constant. We would need to consider how we manage the shared accommodation facilities. We would also need to carefully plan how to quarantine all guests on the islands for up to 2 weeks if someone displayed symptoms of the virus whilst staying on one of the islands.
Nearly all bed spaces for 2021 between mid- April and the end of July on both islands have been reserved for guests that have transferred their bookings from this year. We also understand that we might need to limit the number of overnight guests in future to maintain a safe environment for all.
The result of these considerations has forced our hand and we feel that opening the bookings for the few remaining spaces on both islands in October would be misleading and irresponsible. We fully understand that this will be a huge disappointment. We will update both our website, our social media channels and e-newsletters when the situation for next year becomes clearer.
We thank you for your understanding and support at this difficult time and we remain hopeful for a solution in the not too distant future.
Whilst we have never transferred bookings from one year to the next we have decided that this is an appropriate course of action in this unprecedented situation. Bookings will be offered for the same period in the same month next year. So if you have a reservation between April and September your booking would remain for the same period next year. Transferring bookings to different dates next year is complex and we must wait for all 2020 guests to exercise their options before considering this. The island bookings team consist of just one individual at present so please consider this when waiting for an email response.
If you would rather have monies returned this will be completed when our teams return to work as we cannot perform this whilst working from home, we do appreciate your patience with this matter.
This is clearly an unprecedented time for the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. Skomer and Skokholm provide much of the income that the Trust needs to ensure that these two islands and over 100 other nature reserves can be managed effectively for wildlife. This loss of income for one year will have a catastrophic impact on our ability to look after our wildlife and nature reserves. We really do hope that we will be in a position to ensure that Skomer and Skokholm do open again to the public later this year; however, funds will be required to ensure that this is able to happen.
Please consider donating some or all of your booking fees to help the islands.
You can let us know your wishes by emailing us at islands@welshwildlife.org
Please follow our social media channels and visit our website for future updates.
Thank you