STA responds to First Minister’s announcement on the further easing of restrictions

Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance said:

“After a greatly unsettling period for Scotland’s tourism businesses over the last few weeks, especially those in Glasgow and Moray, today’s announcement by the First Minister that 15 local authority areas will move to level 1 from Saturday, an earlier date than provisionally planned, will come as a huge boost for so many.

This will however be undoubtedly met with a degree of disappointment for those in the 14 local authority areas which will not move to level 1 at the same time, as so many had hoped would be the case in order to be able to trade in a more sustainable way.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s acknowledgement that many businesses are still not able to operate anywhere near viably, or at all as a result of continuing restrictions, with the announcement of the continuation of the Strategic Framework Fund, to which those businesses can apply; albeit for the majority, the amount of support on offer does not in any way cover the costs being incurred or compensate for the loss of revenues.

I know that today’s news will be particularly welcomed by businesses within our island communities who will be able to operate in the most ‘normal’ circumstances that they will have experienced since the outbreak of the pandemic and we very much hope that it will not be long before all tourism businesses the length and breadth of Scotland are able to operate similarly.

We look forward to continuing to inform the Scottish Government’s decision making through our discussions with Ministers and officials over the coming weeks.”