STA Update – 18 March

Media statement: The Scottish Tourism Alliance responds to announcement of support for businesses by Scottish Government 

Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) commented;

“The STA is reassured that the Scottish Government fully appreciates all aspects of the unfolding crisis across Scotland’s tourism industry and is doing everything within its power to protect businesses and staff within the sector, their families and our communities.

Many of the measures we have outlined in our letter to the Finance Secretary last week, and in our daily conversations with government ministers and policy makers have been announced today along with a clear commitment to push the UK government for what is absolutely necessary in terms of reducing cost pressures through tax holidays, PAYE breaks and the suspension of the Apprenticeship Levy.

Urgent clarity around how businesses can access the support announced today will be key; this is being raised by all of our members, however I am sure that our industry will take comfort from knowing that the gravity of what is happening on a daily basis is fully understood and that support is coming.  The process for accessing and distributing support must be robust and seamless.

The STA will continue to gather information from all sectors within the industry for our daily conversations with government ministers and officials and we will push for additional measures to come from the UK government, including an agreement between the UK government and the Association of British Insurers.  We will continue to update Scotland’s tourism industry on what support and resources are available to them on a daily basis and act as the lead voice of the sector in what is undoubtedly the biggest crisis our industry will ever likely experience.”

Summary of the STA’s immediate asks

• Scrapping of all business rates/local taxes for all travel and tourism businesses for 2020.
• Deferring all corporation tax, VAT, PAYE and other tax payments for 12 months.
• Significant emergency loan funding for all affected businesses (as Germany is already doing).
• Paying % of the lost wages of employees on reduced time or temporary layoffs (As Germany & Denmark are doing)
• Providing full benefits and support to all staff who are temporarily made redundant immediately.
• Suspending the requirement for tour operators to refund customers who cannot travel (this affects the entire supply chain).
• Requiring the banks and landlords to offer all affected employees and businesses repayment holidays of up to 12 months on mortgages, loans, rent etc. – maybe to ease with Scot Govt guarantees
• Use the Scottish Investment Bank to support now
• Financial contribution from OTAs
• Scottish Government to abandon introduction of TVL once and for all
• Delay introduction of any and all new business regulations until impact of CV19 fully understood and dealt with
• Encouraging suppliers, such as utilities providers, to offer deferred payments terms to hospitality businesses;
• Look at all core imposed costs into business that have continued to rise and reverse out/stop
• Push the banks hard to be supportive of hospitality businesses experiencing unexpected trading difficulties and provide Scottish Government guarantee
• Commercial landlords must be encouraged to defer rent payments with Government guarantees as necessary
• Establish a SG underwritten business support fund to provide emergency cash flow via zero-interest loans and non-repayable grants
• Commit to review business rates on similar terms to proposed UKG review
• Significant additional resources to VisitScotland to promote Scotland as a destination (careful timing of campaigns)
• Although a reserved matter, Scottish Government to press UKG for reduction in tourism and hospitality VAT to (5% to stimulate demand and support recovery

Push for government intervention over ‘the uninsurable risk’

The STA is continuing to work at pace and closely with the Scottish and UK Governments to find urgent solutions to support businesses.

Feedback has been that whilst tourism and hospitality business have not YET been mandated to shut, they are unable to claim business interruption insurance. There is also a general sense that most business interruption insurance will not pay out due to a pandemic clause.

Our colleagues at the Scottish Government spoke to The Treasury at 3pm today so prior to that call, we approached around 40 tourism business across all sectors within the industry to ask the following questions:

Do you have business interruption insurance?
If so, is there a pandemic clause that would make this void?
What else would you like to see relaxed in your policy?

We collated the feedback and this has been escalated to the highest level.

We have also been working closely with Fiona Campbell, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers on the insurance issue.  Fiona wrote to the Treasury today to ask that an agreement is made between the UK Government and the British Association of Insurers.  You can view a copy of the letter on the STA website here.

What the STA is doing for your tourism business

The STA has been on the front foot since the Coronavirus started to unfold and we have continued to work around the clock to offer reassurance to tourism businesses that we are doing all we can to protect your business and our industry during this critical period.

VisitScotland have new page on their website dedicated to communicating the activity we’re undertaking on your behalf.  You can view this here.

STA launches Coronavirus Media Centre

We have very quickly constructed a media centre to enable journalists to access a wide range of information quickly, easily and via a trusted source.  We continue to gather case studies from the industry and feed those to journalists on a daily basis and are sharing media contacts who work within the STA Member Council organisations to ensure that journalists are able to capture a range of views and stories from all part of the industry.

View the media centre here.

Our conversations with Scottish Government/UK Government

We have the commitment of a call three times a week with the Cabinet Secretary, which will be more frequent if necessary.  Mr Ewing has stressed the importance of industry continuing to feed back through the channels of the STA and Visit Scotland of the impacts being felt on a daily basis.

Marc Crothall also had a call this afternoon with the Cabinet Secretary and stressed that there are many in the industry that shouldn’t be forgotten such as independent tour guides, charities and others.  We are delighted that we continue to have such strong and positive dialogue with the Cabinet Secretary and have been thanked by him for the work we have done throughout the crisis so far.  We will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and the agencies over the coming days and weeks to ensure that the industry’s interests are at the forefront of policy decisions.

Talking to the media

The STA receives numerous calls every day from journalists looking to speak to tourism businesses about the impact Coronavirus is having.  We are building a list of businesses that we can share with journalists to support the communication of the stark reality for Scotland’s tourism industry.

If you are happy to speak to the media about your situation and concerns, please complete this form.