Scottish tourism industry could lose £300m when English lockdown eases, warn business leaders
Scotland’s tourism industry will lose £300 million when England lifts lockdown almost two weeks earlier, business leaders have warned.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions should be able to open on July 15 if COVID-19 cases continue to fall, dailyrecord.co.uk reported.
But the hospitality sector south of the border has been given the green light to restart on July 4 – leading to fears thousands of Scottish families will abandon plans for a summer staycation and head there instead, dailyrecord.co.uk reported.
The exodus is likely to be triggered when travel restrictions are removed 24 hours earlier.
It has also emerged fewer than a third of tourist attractions plan to open in Scotland when allowed because the two-meter social distancing rule will leave them “unviable”. The restriction has been reduced to one meter in England.
UK Hospitality Scottish executive director Willie Macleod said: “The later date is a disappointment and we’ll see residents in Scotland choosing to holiday in England – the Lake District, Cornwall will do very well.
“The tourism industry is worth £11 billion a year to the Scottish economy, so losing over a week at the peak of the season will be a huge blow.
“This is a time when people would be hoping to operate at 100 percent capacity and we normally see 50 or even 60 percent of the total visitor spending. We could easily be losing £300million in turnover over that 11 days.
“The other absolutely crucial thing is the two-meter social distancing. I’ve been on a call with the first minister and she seems to acutely understand the balance that has to be struck between protecting public health and the economy.
“I think we’ll move closer to one meter, certainly a lot of businesses can’t operate viably at two.”
Scottish B&B Association chairman David Weston revealed customers are already heading to England.
He said: “I was speaking to a B&B owner who said she had an inquiry the other day from someone for early July and she had to say no — the customer said they would just book in England.
“We may never get these people coming back to Scotland and everyone loses out because if people aren’t staying, nobody is taking any money in.”
The Scottish government set out the dates when it plans to relax more lockdown restrictions last Wednesday.
They include lifting the fivemile travel limit from July 3, allowing people to meet other households indoors from July 10 and reopening pubs, restaurants, holiday accommodation and hairdressers from July 15.
A number of rules had already been eased as Scotland entered phase 2 earlier this month and further changes will take place on June 29.