HOLIDAY accommodation in Wales won't be open to people across the border when it reopens, the first minister has said.

The Welsh Government is to begin to reopen people’s personal lives and the economy as coronavirus numbers in Wales “continue to go in the right direction”, Mark Drakeford has said.

People from two households will be able to meet in gardens from Saturday, while hairdressers and barbers will be able to operate from Monday. Non-essential retail will begin to reopen from March 22.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that in many Welsh homes, people would need to go through the house to access the back garden but “the idea is you walk straight through, out the back door into the garden”.

“That will be a big step forward here in Wales, people haven’t been able to do that now for weeks and weeks,” he said.

“For many families that will allow grandparents to see grandchildren again and it’s a sign that cautiously, carefully and step by step, we’re now on the journey of reopening Welsh society.”

He also outlined his ambition to reopen self-contained holiday accommodation for the Easter period, "provided things continue to go in the right direction".

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However, people in England will not be able to holiday in Wales when they do open, the first minister confirmed.

He said: "At Easter time, Welsh people will be able to travel for holidays over Easter within Wales, and to self-contained accommodation.

"The rules in England will not permit that. The Prime Minister’s road map says that for the weeks after March 29, people should minimise travel, there are to be no holidays, and people won’t be allowed to stay away from home overnight.

"If it won’t be safe to stay overnight in England, then obviously it would not be safe for people to travel into Wales."

He added that further reopening of Wales’s tourism industry would be halted if holiday providers are found to be taking bookings from people in England over Easter.

Mr Drakeford told the PA news agency: “People who let accommodation should not be taking bookings from people who live outside Wales.

“We will be talking with our local authority colleagues and with the police next week, just to see if there is anything we need to do to mobilise our own enforcement authorities.

“If the industry were to act irresponsibly, the penalty would be we wouldn’t be able to carry on reopening the industry.

“I know there are rogues in any part of life. But I think that the industry will absolutely recognise that we want to go beyond self-contained accommodation. We want the tourism industry in Wales to have a longer and better season this year than we managed last year.”