A shot in the foot
We should be careful what we wish for. If it starts to become hard for stalking and shooting tourists to come to Scotland, the £70m they spend will soon go elsewhere,
THE BAD TRIP Why a ban on guns on planes will adversely affect Scotland's economy
When Swede Magnus Bergström and his five friends boarded their Lufthansa flight in Gothenburg en route to Edinburgh in early October, they were embarking on the trip of a lifetime. Bergström runs a field sports retailer in his home city and his friends are enthusiastic deer stalkers who had listened to his tales of stalking in Scotland and promised themselves that one day they, too, would come to Caledonia. Like many Scandinavian and German sportsmen, the idea of stalking deer on the wide open hills of Scotland rather than the dense woodlands of their homelands was the stuff of dreams.
As he had stalked in Scotland before, Magnus had made all the arrangements for the trip. He had acquired the UK Visitor’s Permit, a lengthy process which involves being sponsored by a UK national resident and making a criminal record declaration. Police Scotland were satisfied and granted permits allowing the party to bring their rifles. He made the requisite checks with Lufthansa before they all checked-in their rifles at the airport.
The nightmare began when they arrived at Edinburgh but their luggage didn’t. There wasn’t just one bag missing; by remarkable coincidence, all six travellers’ luggage had gone walkabout. Eventually, with no other option, they pressed on to Straloch, a beautiful estate in Highland Perthshire where they were booked in for four days of stalking.
But when their luggage failed to materialise the next day, their host remembered an article he had read about Lufthansa and got busy on Google. And there it was. Last year, after receiving warnings for mishandling firearms at UK airports, Lufthansa had thrown their toys – or should that be guns – out of the pram and banned firearms on flights to Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The problem was that not only had they failed to inform the Swedes (or any other passengers) of the ban, they then insisted that luggage containing firearms which had disappeared was ‘lost’ rather than impounded. By the time the penny dropped, there was no realistic prospect of either the luggage or the firearms turning up. Instead, the owner of the estate plundered his gun room and those of his neighbours and stalker in search of rifles and gear, while the Swedes raided the Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Pitlochry in search of socks and smalls. Even toothbrushes had to be sourced. Until a pair of boots was unearthed at the last minute, one of the Swedes was contemplating a day on the hill wearing his host’s daughter’s pink wellies.
Unsurprisingly, the tourists were
not amused. ‘We booked this flight earlier in the year and were very specific about bringing firearms on this flight,’ said Magnus. ‘The thing that makes me really mad is that they let us check in the rifles at the airport without a word about a firearms ban to the UK. Then they refused to give us any information about our luggage during the whole stay in Scotland. Months of preparations and thousands of pounds on new optics, boots, hunting clothes etc that we now couldn’t use.
‘When we finally received our luggage and rifles on our return home, it was without any explanation or apology. Lufthansa’s handling of this has been totally incompetent.’
If you’re struggling to see the importance of this tale, bear in mind that this was a scenario being played out throughout Scotland, and then spare a thought for the importance of stalking tourism to Scotland’s economy. Sportsmen from around the world, but particularly from Scandinavia and Germany, flock here for the privilege of paying around
£500 per stag, plus tips to the stalker and all the travel and accommodation costs. With 2,000 predominantly EU citizens applying for Visitor Firearms Certificates and 4,000 applying for Visitor Shotgun Certificates – plus an estimated 150,000 either borrowing a firearm when they get here or coming from England – shooting and stalking tourism brings £70 million into the Scottish economy each year.
When Lufthansa threatened to do the same last year, the Scottish Government, who understood the potential damage to Scotland’s rural economy, intervened quickly to stymie this
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A perception stalkers aren’t welcome here is taking root
commercial decision by the German carrier. This year, they appear to have been caught off guard.
Nor is it just Lufthansa who are being difficult. At a recent shoot in Angus, a fellow gun told me about a recent trip to Norfolk to shoot with old friends. He booked his shotgun on to the flight from Edinburgh, picked up his ticket with a firearms logo on it, travelled without drama and had a good day’s shooting. But the next day, at Norwich Airport on the way back to get his FlyBe flight, he was told that it was now policy not to allow firearms on flights. A heated discussion ensued and only ended when the pilot of the plane was passing and, having enquired as to the source of the rammy, agreed to transport the shotgun in the cockpit. Otherwise the shooter would have had no choice but to hire a car and drive back to Scotland.
There are also other issues. The Twitter storm over American ‘huntress’ Larysa Switlyk’s admittedly crass goat shooting exploits on Islay – exacerbated by the Scottish Government’s equally depressing grandstanding on the issue – has not gone unnoticed by the international fieldsports community, and the perception that sportsmen and women may not be welcomed in Scotland has now taken root. With other nations now challenging Scotland for a larger share of the stalking and shooting market, it is time to have a grown-up conversation with urban Scotland – one, for instance, which points out that estates have a legal obligation to control deer numbers and that if tourists don’t pay to shoot stags, then landowners will have to pay professional cullers to do it.
Most importantly, we must all remember that 8,800 jobs in remote areas of rural Scotland depend on shooting and stalking. If we demonise fieldsports tourists or allow airlines to deter them coming here, then we will all suffer.