Tourist events are casualties of virus spread

Visit Scotland has cancelled a major tourism event at Perth Concert Hall.

Scotland suggested a ban on gatherings of over 500 people last week due to the coronavirus risk, so next week’s Tay Cities Regional Tourism Conference will now not go ahead even though it was a smaller event expecting 200-250 people based on last year’s attendance figures.

A VisitScotland notice went out to tourism outlets on Friday:“Due to the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) situation it is with regret that the delivery organisations of the Tay Cities Regional Tourism Conference - Angus, Dundee City, Fife and Perth and Kinross local authorities in partnership with VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise - have decided to cancel the event on March 26 at the Perth Concert Hall.

“We have been getting an increasing number of enquiries about whether the conference would still be going ahead and a general feeling of hesitation about attending.

“It’s clear that bringing a large gathering of people together, while we’re in this very unique set of circumstances, would not be a responsible thing to do at this time.

“The conference is a key event for tourism businesses across the regions and this decision has not been taken lightly, however with the health and welfare of our attendees as a priority and with the number of cases of coronavirus increasing across the world, we did not want to contribute to its potential spread across Scotland.”

The event cancellation is a big blow, not only to Perth Concert Hall but to the tourism industry generally.

Prior to the visitor activity freeze currently being experienced worldwide, spending by tourists in Scotland was said to generate around £10.5 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain.

VisitScotland states its key objective is“to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020”. This now looks increasingly bleak.