Thoughts from STA Chief Executive, Marc Crothall

I’d like to pause briefly for a moment to reflect on the last few weeks and to say thank you.

Thank you to all of our loyal members who have kept very close to us over the last few weeks, sharing information, the details of what you’re going through on a day to day basis in your business and also for your support.

Thank you for all the positive comments too those that you’ve been sending to me directly and also sharing throughout our social channels – they mean a great deal to me and to the STA team and have kept us going through some pretty long, challenging and heavy days.

Thank you to the many businesses within the wider tourism industry who have also come to the STA for support and to share information and evidence with us.  I would also like to thank the Scottish Government, Cabinet Secretaries, UK Government ministers and civil servants who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to support the industry and the STA at this time  to ensure that our communications are seen and heard by the right people quickly.

Most of all, I would like to thank the STA Team who have dedicated huge amounts of their professional and personal time to ensuring that we are communicating to all of our different audiences, through all our different channels in an up to date, upbeat and accurate manner.  They have gone above and beyond what I could ever imagine would be required by any of them.

Like all tourism businesses, the STA remains exposed to the impacts of Covid-19 being a membership organisation for an industry that has come to a virtual stand-still in the past three weeks, and we know that things are going to be tougher for us too. We are very grateful and extremely appreciative of all those businesses who have stuck with us and despite challenging times have paid their subscriptions and to the new members that have joined in recent weeks as it is this income that funds what we have been able to do and will continue to do for the industry in the months and years ahead.

However as a team and being very conscious of the challenges in front of us, we continue to review our costs and finances very closely just as all other businesses are doing.  To that end, whilst we manage through the current crisis I have made the decision to place two of our team on furlough resulting in our core teaming shrinking to three –myself Marc Crothall – CEO, Mhairi Clarke – Communications Director, Karen Christie – Tourism Strategy Project (Co-ordinator) with part-time business and finance support from Elaine Townsend.

We are confident that we can continue to represent as we have done to date to ministers and work closely with tourism colleagues in the agencies and government teams and importantly ensure we keep you informed on a regular basis with developments and other relevant information to support you through the weeks and months ahead. That said with two of the team off for a short while it will mean that we will be a little constrained in how and what we deliver, and we will be streamlining some our processes, changing the frequency of our communications but still making sure that we continue to represent you in the strongest way we can while balancing the volume of work that we wake up to every day. One of the changes we will be making is reducing the frequency of our daily update which from next week will be three times a week as opposed to five  – Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Over the past 3 weeks we feel confident that we have captured the vast majority of issues in relation to support that has been announced, or not as the case may be – we have identified where are the gaps that are needing to be plugged still exist and have been thanked by ministers and officials for bringing these forward in a coordinated way. My team and I have between us over the past 3 weeks have been in receipt of 2500+, emails and comments on our social platforms per week so, believe me, we have lots of case studies and have shared many of them direct with ministers and their civil servants. What is important now is If a specific issue relating to any of the support has not yet been highlighted then we of want to hear about it and feed this to the relevant people.  What’s equally important is that peoples time and the resource available in all departments of Govt are allowed to concentrate on moving these issues forward and that working together with them we can influence and shape the necessary solutions so that they are created and delivered carefully and as expediently as possible.

To this end, in an attempt to be most efficient with the time we have we will now be convening the STA Council on a weekly basis at which we will be inviting Council representatives to bring forward “new issues” that we are not currently aware of.  The Cabinet Secretary has also committed to attending these meetings where possible but a government tourism official will always be present on the call which will allow for these ”new issues” to be directly captured and avoid the need for multiple submissions.

The next few weeks will undoubtedly continue to be challenging for us all and the number one priority must be centred around health, and of course wellbeing.  We know how much this crisis is impacting on peoples’ lives, livelihoods and wellbeing and some days will feel a lot more positive than others, my team and I will of course be doing our very best to bringing you positive news and keeping your spirits up too.

We are resilient and have come together an in  like never before.  We have real strength in our community and although the road ahead for all of us is unknown at the moment  I know that the spirit we have will see the majority of business through this extraordinarily difficult time and together we can rebuild, recover and return to winning ways!

Once again each of the STA team and I are extremely grateful to you all for the support you have given us and for all of your kind words and communications

Please be assured that we will continue to work as hard as we possibly can for you to protect and secure your business and the future of Scotland’s tourism industry.

Have a great weekend

STAY SAFE, STAY STRONG, STAY HEALTHY, STAY IN TOUCH