Our tourism sector needs support, not more costly uncertainty

SCOTTISH tourism is waiting eagerly to open its doors. Closed down for more than three months, the army of hotels, B&Bs, self-catering properties and campsites are more than ready to welcome tourists from all over the country.

They have all marked July 15 on their calendars and are preparing to ensure that their properties adhere to the strict Covid guidelines they have been given. This in itself is a major shift and yet another cost.

The tourism industry willingly put up with this enforced shutdown. They stayed closed throughout Easter and the early summer season, losing millions into the bargain.

They have even put up with the knowledge that English campsites and hotels will be open almost two weeks earlier – costing the industry a further £11million and almost half a million visitors. According to the Scottish Tourism Alliance, 70 per cent of Scottish tourism is from the rest of the UK.

So, imagine the shock when, against this backdrop, the First Minister refused to rule out a quarantine plan for English visitors. Imagine their devastation when bookings they have been so eagerly taking get in contact to ask if they can have a refund if English visitors will be subject to two weeks of quarantine if they cross the Border.

Imagine the scale of their disappointment when they realise that all the waiting, and all the work, still has not come to an end.

As the First Minister knows, the practical implications of quarantining everyone who crosses the Border into Scotland are staggering. This is the same Border that is crossed regularly by the thousands of people who live along it.

The same Border that is crossed by thousands of lorry drivers bringing supplies in and out of Scotland. Closing the Border means closing roads, ports, railway lines and airports. Knowing all that, when repeatedly asked, the First Minister still has not ruled out the possibility of quarantining visitors and Scots returning home from England.

The media has been pursuing this issue so the First Minister has had ample opportunity to set the record straight. If Miss Sturgeon

wanted to, she could make it clear that quarantining fellow British nationals and the majority of our tourism market is simply not an option, but she hasn’t.

Yet again, she has said it would be ‘really inappropriate’ to consider this issue through ‘the prism of Scottish politics or the constitutional debate’ as she allows the debate to continue unchecked all around her.

The immediate matter is this: the First Minister has recklessly allowed our tourism industry to be plunged into uncertainty and chaos at a time when it was within touching distance of reaching the finishing line. This seems, at best, highly irresponsible given the sheer scale of the economic challenge we all face.

But it isn’t the first time. The First Minister had to be dragged kicking and screaming to review the two-metre social distancing rule, something that means the closure of nine out of ten of our pubs.

We all understand we need to keep this virus under control, but as the number of infections continues to fall, it’s beginning to feel as though the restrictions the SNP has imposed are unnecessarily punitive and arbitrary – consider the U-turn it performed when it looked as though parents would not accept a year of blended learning.

THE discussion on quarantine has certainly distracted from the SNP’s continually woeful performance on testing, and it is only through testing that we will get a long-term grasp of this virus and our economy can get back to something approaching normal.

It is far easier for Miss Sturgeon to speculate about quarantining the English than it is to answer why thousands of tests are being unused each day and why NHS and care home staff are still not being tested in sufficient numbers, despite a promise six weeks ago to test them all ‘routinely’.

The fact is that as the likelihood of local flare-ups increases, a local lockdown approach may have to be deployed.

Our tourism industry needs help and support, so last weekend the Scottish Conservatives called for the SNP to provide more support for the very businesses they were forcing to stay closed and for a far-reaching tourism campaign to make up for lost time.

While the SNP gaslights tourism and hospitality, the Scottish Conservatives have suggested real solutions that could make the difference for some businesses between insolvency and survival. Scottish tourism does not need more uncertainty and restriction – it needs help and support.