MORE than 50 independent businesses have joined forces to launch a campaign to help safeguard hundreds of thousands of vital jobs in the hospitality industry.
As the industry grapples with a cost of doing business crisis, and it faces its third tough winter since the pandemic started, a new online platform has been set up that can be used by hospitality businesses to promote offers and attract direct bookings.
The Help Out Hospitality scheme is supported by hospitality businesses such as McKays Hotel in Perthshire, Links House in Royal Dornoch in Sutherland, Brewhemia in Edinburgh, Ingliston County Club & Hotel in Renfrewshire, Tyneside Tavern and Mazzoli Italian Kitchen in East Lothian, and Banchory Lodge in Aberdeenshire.
Designed to incorporate every aspect of the hospitality supply chain, including food and drink producers, the commission-free website offers the opportunity for businesses to develop deals and overnight stays at a time when the industry typically sees a drop in business.
It comes as hospitality operators struggle under a barrage of costs, with many in the industry have seen energy bills soar by around several hundred per cent this year. The cost of other inputs such as labour, food and drink have also been increasing sharply, while last week the Bank of England hike interest rates to three per cent from 2.25%.
The hospitality industry employs around 220,000 people in Scotland, representing about 8.6% of the total number of jobs in the country.
The initiative has been led by The Full Range, a food and drink procurement company.
Paul Fraser, owner of Ingliston Country Club & Hotel, said: “The hospitality industry plays a key role in everyday life. The time spent together with family and friends are where the best memories are made.
“The world is full of bad news these days, so it’s great to be able to partner on such a positive campaign with support from all our loyal suppliers and collectively being able to give something back to our local community and attract potential first-time visitors.”
Richard Drummond, owner of McKays Hotel in Pitlochry, said: "Help is precisely what the hospitality and tourism industry requires. After the past three years, the closures, the uncertainties, staffing issues, and now spiralling costs.
“The Full Range came up with the Help Out hospitality initiative to support our industry, which the scheme sets out to achieve. However, it not only helps our industry, but it also helps everyone, our suppliers, and the end user, it allows us to pass the discount we receive, on to our customers.
“Hopefully, this will drive additional revenue to our businesses and offer our guests great savings, which is a win-win for all."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel