THE challenges facing the tourism and hospitality sector have been acute and manifold since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Protracted Covid restrictions have been followed by a persistent labour and skills shortage, global supply-chain upheaval and, over the last year, a cost-of-doing-business crisis that has seen overheads spiral.
Against that backdrop, it has not been surprising to see many hospitality businesses close their doors for the final time, particularly as consumers are struggling with an inflation rate in excess of 10 per cent.
Fortunately, there are exceptions to the rule. Following a gradual decline over recent years, the prospects for the Cross Keys Inn in Ettrickbridge had looked decidedly bleak when it closed its doors last year. Locals feared the property would be turned into flats and a vital community asset would be lost for good.
READ MORE: Local entrepreneurs save only pub in Scottish Borders village
However, Rory and Vicki Steel had other plans. The local business owners knew the Cross Keys had for generations been a focal point for community life in Ettrickbridge and are convinced that it can be again, so much so they have invested more than £400,000 to bring the pub back to life.
The investment is an encouraging vote of confidence in an industry that has come under so much strain in recent years, especially in rural parts of the country where it has become extremely difficult to hire staff.
It should also bolster efforts to promote the wider tourism industry in the Scottish Borders, which all too often is overlooked by visitors – despite the huge number of attractions that both it and Dumfries and Galloway to the west offer.
Mr Steel said: “Tourism in Scotland is stacking up pretty well but often people are going straight through the Borders and up to the central belt and Highlands, so what can we do to get them to stop in the Borders? It is about upgrading the quality of our accommodation provision and services for the tourists that do come here because they are coming here to explore the great outdoors, which the Borders has in abundance.”
Hopefully the revival of the Cross Keys can help convince more people to take in the Borders, and the wider south of Scotland area, when they are next planning to visit the country.
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 here