By Scott Wright
THE body which represents leading Scottish visitor attractions has launched a new bid to ease the staff shortage currently blighting the tourism industry.
Tourism-related businesses across the country are being forced to operate at reduced capacity because huge numbers of staff are being forced to self-isolate if they have come into contact with someone who has tested positively for coronavirus.
It has led to calls for the industry to be added by ministers to the list of sectors, including food supply, which are now exempt from the rules.
Staff shortages have also been exacerbated by Brexit, which has led to an exodus of European staff from the tourism and hospitality sector and made it more difficult for Scottish businesses to bring staff in from EU nations.
In a bid to tackle the deficit, the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA) has teamed up with a UK recruitment firm to promote roles within the sector.
The ASVA, which represents nearly 500 individual visitor attractions, is inviting members to post their vacancies free of charge on its website. The vacancies will in turn be pulled through to Xpressjobs, a leading recruitment platform for the hospitality and tourism industry, allowing the openings to reach a wide raudience.
Gordon Morrison, chief executive of the ASVA, said: “Scotland’s visitor attractions sector has been hit extremely hard by the Covid crisis, and although most of our members’ businesses are trading again, they face huge challenges in recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
“The staffing shortages the entire tourism industry is currently experiencing are of huge concern for many attractions.
“It’s incredibly difficult for them to build back their businesses and provide world-class visitor experiences if they don’t have a full complement of committed, talented and enthusiastic staff.
“We encourage our members to post their vacancies on ASVA’s website – and we share these details to everyone subscribed to receive our weekly jobs mailshot – so we know that all categories of attractions across Scotland have a range of posts that need to be filled urgently.
“The increased visibility this high-profile recruitment platform provides will vastly improve the chances of the vacancies being filled quickly.”
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