Every pound a prisoner at two of city’s favourite destinations

Bosses behind two of Dundee’s most historic and visited sites have warned of the financial difficulties coronavirus has wrought on the tourism sector.

Dundee Heritage Trust (DHT), which manages Verdant Works and Discovery Point, has announced its initial plans for reopening on Friday.

However, chief executive Deirdre Robertson admitted the group is looking closely at its coffers, but has committed to continuing to pay staff a living wage.

She said: “We are so excited to be reopening both sites and particularly with our new outside catering at Discovery Point, which is looking fabulous.

“We are pleased to be able to offer something for families to do during the rest of the school holidays and also do our bit to help the local hoteliers attract more people to the city.

“There’s obviously still a lot of uncertainty about visitor numbers and some areas of our business will take a while to recover.

“Our conference and events spaces are usually full, having the most stunning outlook in the city, and our overseas visitors are usually 23% of our business and there won’t be many of those visitors around this year.

“As an independent charity, 98% reliant on our own resources, we have suffered more than most museums during lockdown and the significant costs of caring for our two collections of national and international significance have continued during lockdown. We are more reliant than ever on the support of our local community, but we know they are keen to return and want to ensure our survival so we remain optimistic.

“There’s a lot of extra costs in responding to the pandemic so we will be testing the market by opening the ship only at Discovery Point and high mill only at Verdant Works.

“We are very proud to have retained our commitment to a Real Living Wage throughout the crisis. The senior team all took temporary and voluntary 20% salary cuts to get us through this.

“So many people think we are part of the council and don’t realise how few people do so much to make DHT the success it is on low pay and, until recently, no pensions.”