Press statement: Scottish Tourism Alliance signals potential widespread closure of hotels across all of Scotland’s tiers

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

“I’ve had several calls with hoteliers and hotel associations since the First Minister’s announcement yesterday around the forthcoming introduction of Level 4 restrictions in 11 of Scotland’s local authority areas and the fact that travel guidance from Tier 3 and 4 will become law from Friday.  All, regardless of which tier they are in are faced with a situation where their footfall is largely wiped out due to the travel restrictions and the fact that alcohol can’t be served in the majority of hotel restaurants which means that they are not able to offer an experience in line with customer expectations. This is leaving many with no option but to close, some for the three week period, many for beyond that period and well into the new year.

There’s obviously a great deal of uncertainty around what tier these hotels might go into after the three week period when restrictions are reviewed, coupled with the fact that businesses are losing what would have been a significant amount of income in the run up to the festive period; many I believe will close their doors over the next couple of days until the end of January as the costs of remaining open with trading at such an unviable level are just too high.

The hotels I’ve spoken to have told me that the cancellations are already flooding in too as guests remain unsure of what will or won’t be possible so all are running the numbers to establish whether it is viable to stay open and with demand already at a very low level for this time of year, it would seem highly likely that most will close for at least the next few months.

This is undoubtedly the most desperate time for our industry since the crisis unfolded with all businesses keen to learn the detail of the Scottish Government’s support package, the headlines of which were announced yesterday and I am hopeful that by tomorrow we will have more clarity on that and a timescale for businesses to apply for funding.”