KEITH Smith (Letters, June 13) is right, it would be stupid to re-open self-catering accommodation, which is normally let Saturday to Saturday, on Wednesday July 15. But instead of moving the date to the start or end of that week, as he suggests, it would be far better to move it forward to the start of the school holidays, June 27. Re-opening self-catering accommodation, or allowing people to go to their second homes for that matter, is not like re-opening serviced accommodation like hotels which crowds different households together indoors. In self-catering accommodation, including mobile homes and caravans, people can stay self-contained in their own households, just like at home. And, as long as they keep two metres apart when going outdoors, they pose no risk to anyone, just like at home.
Where local communities are concerned about self-caterers patronising local food shops, they could tell people to bring their own provisions for the week. As for cleaning, ask self-caterers to leave the windows open on departure, give time for any aerobic droplets to settle and then follow the good cleaning practice that needs to be followed throughout the tourism sector.
Re-opening other types of tourist facilities is far more difficult given current physical distancing rules. It makes no sense for the Scottish Government to treat self-catering and hotels the same, and aim to reopen both on the same day ("Scots tourism sector open for business 'next month'", The Herald, June 11). This will just create further unnecessary economic hardship, particularly in rural communities.
The school holidays are an important factor here. Many families with children will not get a holiday abroad this year and demand for accommodation in Scotland will be immense. If families are only allowed to book halfway through the holidays, demand will double, prices will rise and only the richest part of the population will be able to afford to go away. The families who have suffered most, those who have been confined to houses without gardens and who might have hoped to book a caravan by the seaside for a week, are most likely to lose out. The social and emotional problems caused by the lockdown are bad enough as is it, without making them worse.
The root of this problem is the Scottish Government's reluctance to allow people travel more than five miles. There is no basis for this in science. Driving by car does not spread the virus, it's what you do when you get out that matters. Scotland's countryside has enough space for everyone to keep safely apart. It could safely accommodate thousands of families, both on day visits and overnight. Public transport is an issue but it would be far better to let those with cars go first, creating space for others to follow, rather than forcing all families to book their holidays in a three week period or flee south to England.
Nick Kempe, Glasgow G41.
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