By Marc Crothall
The last few weeks for Scotland’s tourism industry have been characterised by a deep sense of limbo, with businesses waiting anxiously for decisions to be made on what path our industry would be required to take to support government measures in controlling the virus.
The route of total closure for licensed premises within the Central Belt area and the restrictions imposed on hospitality businesses across the rest of the country is so far away from our best, or indeed worst-case, scenario. The reaction to these new restrictions was a mix of immediate devastation, confusion and frustration.
I have never seen so many businesses in all sectors of Scotland’s tourism industry turn so quickly to our organisation for guidance, support, advice, clarity and to provide a bit of a beacon of light.
This is becoming harder for us to offer; there is no one to blame for that. The STA feeds directly into conversations with governments, policy-makers and senior civil servants every day. We know how tirelessly everybody is working to create and land policy that will curb the spread of the virus and maintain a level of economic activity to prevent mass unemployment across all sectors in Scotland. We are all humans trying to do the best that we can right now, professionally and personally. I don’t believe anybody wants to be in this situation or see harm felt by our society in health or economic terms, in relation to mental health and wellbeing or for any particular group, sector or community to suffer disproportionally.
Scotland’s tourism industry is known for its ambition, resilience and spirit of determination. However, what we are experiencing now as a sector is becoming too challenging to recover from.
Like many other trade bodies, the STA undertook research following the Scottish Government’s announcement on the new restrictions to gauge the financial impact these would have on different sectors within our industry, including pubs, restaurants, self-catering businesses, caravan parks, hotels, visitor attractions, activity operators and many others.
Of the 351 businesses which responded to our survey, 85 said their fixed costs in staying closed between October 10 and 25 would be up to £5,000, 37 businesses indicated they would be between £5,000 and £10,000,18 businesses said £10,000 to £15,000, and 13 signalled £15,000 to £20,000. For five businesses the figure was £40,000 to £45,000 and seven put their fixed costs in staying closed during this period at more than £70,000.
Looking at lost revenue, 95 businesses said they would lose up to £5,000 during the period of closure, 41 estimated £5,000 to £10,000, 19 said they would lose £10,000 to £15,000, with 10 estimating it would be £15,000 to £20,000, 19 standing to lose £10,000 to £15,000. Seven estimated lost revenue would be between £40,000 to £45,000 and 13 expected to lose more than £70,000 during the period of closure.
This survey of 351 businesses across a wide range of sectors is fairly representative of what to expect across the entire tourism industry, if you scale that up, which translates to business closure, mass redundancies and social and economic problems in all of our communities.
The effects of the current restrictions will decimate our sector to a point that recovery is hard to imagine. Our businesses have done everything they can, going above and beyond what is required to ensure a safe experience for staff and customers but quite simply, a huge number of them won’t be here beyond this year. We are now looking at many hundreds of redundancies within the coming weeks unless greater financial support is offered to the sector from both governments at what is now a critical time for our tourism sector.
Marc Crothall is chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance
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