Thousands of visitors were reportedly turned away from underground tours at Big Pit in Blaenavon this summer, with the attraction's operator citing high levels of serious illness among its workforce.
During a meeting of the Senedd's culture committee, Plaid Cymru MS Nick Carter said he had heard reports of 3,000 people unable to access tours at Big Pit over the summer, which had led to issues with staff.
Illness hits former miner guides
Amgueddfa Cymru chief executive Jane Richardson said: "Big Pit has had a very tough summer. Very unfortunately we've had some very serious illness in Big Pit in very high numbers to do with the nature of the workforce that we have there, and it's meant you can't just cover easily for a miner who has spent 40 years working underground."
She added: "You can't just ask that person over there 'can you quickly lead that underground tour'. It's been an extremely stressful summer for the team."
Richardson said staff were being trained to plug future gaps due to possible sickness: "We've been putting support in around that team, and we've done a deep dive around what can we learn, we're getting more of the wider staff at Big Pit so if we do have that situation again they can deliver underground tours."
Charging trial and visitor feedback
During the same meeting, an update about charging for tours at Big Pit was requested. The committee was told a trial to charge for entry is ongoing, having started in April 2025 and due to end in December, covering different periods. Interim data showed 98% of visitors were happy with the price paid.
Nick Carter also raised concerns about St Fagans National Museum of History, saying many historic buildings are closed due to a lack of staff, lone working issues, and mould is appearing in some buildings because they are not being opened frequently enough. He also said he had received reports of staff being subjected to aggressive behaviour.
Aggressive behaviour across sites
Richardson said the issue was not limited to St Fagans: "I would say we are experiencing it at every site, and when I meet with museum directors across the UK it's the biggest change since Covid - aggressive behaviour, angry people, very quick to respond."
She also described a phenomenon called social media auditing, where people deliberately engage staff in conflict: "One of the other really awful things that's happening is a phenomenon called social media auditing, where people come in, and wear a camera and deliberately engage one of our colleagues in conflict, it will usually be a female, junior and often an ethnic minority. They get them into conflict and monestise that on the web. Colleagues of ours have been subject to that."
Training is happening at all sites, she said, to equip staff.
