NEARLY 100 of Scotland’s leading hoteliers and restaurateurs have endorsed an urgent call for more clarity and guidance from the Scottish Government regarding hospitality opening arrangements, or risk a deeper, damaging malaise in the sector.
The campaign, backed by Stewart Spence, owner of the Marcliffe Hotel and Colin Gunn, and Niall O’Shaughnessy from Moxy Aberdeen Airport highlights the stresses and strains that businesses within the hospitality sector are facing as they find it difficult to prepare and react to the consequences of each new restriction.
A letter has now been sent to First Minister asking for a three point reassurance plan.
Within it, it asks for:
Details now in order to prepare for tier changes and more evidence for these changes
We need to know now cross-border and cross regional travel plans and whether people can travel freely, as these unknowns significantly impact business
Confirmation of the future tier system up to end of December, received immediately – different tier systems affect stock validity and whether alcohol can be sold in public areas thus heavily affecting our margins
Future changes to numbers within social bubbles for indoor and outdoor activity.
We urgently need to know plans for a possible January lockdown and, with it, specific dates so we can plan any temporary closure periods accordingly
Jill Chalmers, managing director of Glenapp Castle in Ayrshire, said: ‘’It is impossible for hotels in Scotland to operate professionally with such scarce details.
“We acutely understand the wider picture and the health of the public being of the utmost importance, but we have struggled for long enough and sadly seen too many redundancies and closures across the sector.
“Without these urgent detailed answers about exact opening dates and tier structures, the sector will suffer a deeper malaise throughout December and into 2021, and Scotland will be left with a permanent economic scar caused by the collapse of so many hotels and restaurants’’.
