Scotland's battered tourism industry this week signalled its “bitter” disappointment that hotels, pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions are still being denied lifeline grants to support them through the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish Tourism Alliance has been campaigning alongside groups such as the Scottish Licensed Trade Association for greater financial assistance for the hospitality industry, arguing that the methodology used to determine grants has ruled thousands of outlets out of receiving support.

READ MORE: Businesses have been able to qualify for grants of £25,000 if the rateable value of their premises falls between £18,001 and £51,000. But this has frozen out thousands of pubs, hotels, and restaurants, which trade from properties with a rateable value higher than £51,000.

In one case, a leading voice in Scotland’s crucial golf tourism sector said he feared he may have to stop trading at his East Lothian hotel as the coronavirus looks set to wipe out the summer season.

Malcolm Duck said he is now considering all options for the 23-bedroom Duck’s Inn at Aberlady he runs with his wife after being denied a Scottish Government grant to support the business through the pandemic.

READ MORE: The hospitality veteran, who founded the acclaimed Duck’s at Le March Noire restaurant in Edinburgh in 1988, said he has had to borrow £130,000 to keep the hotel going after seeing a summer’s worth of bookings wiped out by the pandemic.

Along the supply chain, the chief of a Glasgow-based wholesale firm feels the plight of specialist on-trade suppliers has been overlooked amid the continuing focus on the effects of coronavirus on pubs, hotels, and restaurants.

READ MORE: Jim Rowan, managing director of Dunns Food & Drink, said suppliers to the Scottish licensed trade have seen business shattered by the Covid-19 pandemic, and fears it will be well into next year before a recovery of substance will be under way.

Also this week, Scottish Borders-based Hutton Stone boss flags stalled cash-flow challenge for SMEs as they emerge from coronavirus lockdown

READ MORE: Marcus Paine, who has built the Scottish Borders-based Hutton Stone quarrying business, has highlighted the challenges of dealing with stalled cash flow for small and medium-sized enterprises such as his as they resume activity after lockdown.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald, the co-founder of the company that has secured the £25 million Rangers Football Club kit contract this week told how the Ibrox ethos and fanbase is central to his firm’s global growth ambitions.

READ MORE: Tom Beahon, 30, told the story behind the deal with the Liverpool-based company which has tennis champion Sir Andy Murray as a shareholder, has partnered with Formula 1 firm McLaren, the West Indies cricket team, and most recently, signed the multi-year kit supply deal at Ibrox.

Energy giant BP ths week appointed a Glasgow-born veteran of the oil and gas industry to run its North Sea business as it grapples with the plunge in commodity prices triggered by the coronavirus.

READ MORE: It said Emeka Emembolu will become senior vice president for the North Sea on July 1 after working for the firm around the world.

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And finally ... Galliford Try's Morrison Construction business has been awarded a £42 million contract to build the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland’s flagship facility near Glasgow Airport in Renfrewshire. The facility, described as “the linchpin for the future of manufacturing in Scotland”, will be around 1.5 times the size of the football pitch at the national stadium at Hampden in Glasgow.