ASVA/Moffat Centre survey results on the reopening of the visitor attraction sector 

ASVA has published the results of its recent survey, in partnership with the Moffat Centre to get a clearer understanding of the level of reopening within the visitor attractions sector.

The survey was sent out to 688 Scottish visitor attractions; a total of 342 surveys were completed over a nine day period in mid-April 2021.

Headlines from the survey:

• 78.7% of the sector either intends to open at some point in 2021 or is already open.
• 12.6% of the sector does not anticipating opening at all this year.
• Of the attractions that have re-opened/will be reopening, 55.8% will be open by the end of April 2021. A further 20.8% will be open by the end of May.
• Of the 78.7% that are re-opening, fewer than 1 in 3 (27.1%) will be fully opening.
• Two thirds of the sector (65.4%) will be partially opening, with either reduced hours, weekends only or with some facilities closed.
• Of the two thirds of the sector partially reopening, over 80% are unable to provide a date for when they think they will be able to fully reopen.
• Encouragingly, more than half of respondents (55.8%) stated that, once open, they intend to remain open for the rest of the year, thus extending the season.

The survey shows clearly that the majority of attractions cannot fully open because it will not be economically viable to do so. Results from the March survey highlighted that the continuation of 2 metre physical distancing will have economic consequences for the majority of the attractions sector, with 54% of the sector either forced to remain closed or losing money when open as a result of this restriction. The lack of international visitors in 2021 is going to have a considerable economic impact on the sector, almost 20% of attractions anticipating a drop in turnover of more than 50% (when compared to 2019).

You can view the survey results in full here.