Running Edinburgh’s Royal Mile at this time of year usually requires a lot of maneuvering, dawdling, and a lot of patience. But for the second year in a row, the global pandemic left the city almost empty. The lack of international visitors, festivals and events has been hit hard – and local companies are feeling it.

In early June, signs popped up in the windows of several shops along the mile. “SNP has given up the Scottish tourism retail trade,” they say. “State aid is needed to save jobs”.

The signs were intentionally inflammatory, but John Thorburn, the owner of Really Scottish, one of the shops down the street, explains that it wasn’t about being anti-SNP. He says: “SNP only stands because they are the ruling party. It could just as easily have been Green, Labor, Liberal and Conservative, but the SNP is the party in power in the city and in the country. The poster should attract attention. “

Thorburn’s store is one of the few that are currently open on the Royal Mile. Others have chosen to remain closed as long as the number of visitors is low. Despite the lack of competition, he still fights for customers and often spends days without sales.

“Edinburgh is a tourist city for international tourists. This is where the revenue comes from. The high rents here, a few thousands and thousands of pounds per week, are justified by the high frequency of international tourists. But there hasn’t been any for 15 months, none. Someone doesn’t come to Edinburgh from Crieff for a day and say, ‘Oh, I think I’ll buy myself a scottish scarf to remember my visit to the capital.’ You don’t. They buy a beer and a burger and maybe an ice cream. ”The customer review has been automatically translated from German.

In fact, the idea that domestic tourism would offset the decline in international travel this summer and last would never become a reality for places like Edinburgh. A survey by the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) indicated a slow start in summer accommodation bookings across Scotland. More than 40 percent of the hotels surveyed stated that their occupancy rate was below 20 percent.

However, Marc Crothall, CEO of STA, tells Holyrood that things have been looking a little more positive for some travel destinations since the survey was conducted. He says, “We have reported some growth in the affected sectors, good growth. Some of the hotels in particular have reported to us that they have suddenly seen telephone rings and bookings in well-known hotels and accommodations in very attractive travel destinations. I’m not saying Scotland isn’t attractive in the length and breadth of the country, but those that are more of a honeypot spot – the West Coast, in Inverness, North Coast 500, Gleneagles and Crieff Hydro and Peebles – all are reporting a relatively good one now Performance in terms of bookings for a short-term window … However, the real concern is still in the cities. “

And Crothall warns that after over a year of closings, restrictions, and health and safety precautions that can now be reopened, not every store will be in the black. “Yes, you can still trade and have a reasonably good summer through the leisure lens – it still won’t be enough revenue stream to protect yourself [businesses]. Seventy percent of visitor attractions across the country are currently open, but only 10 percent of them are balanced or make money. “

He adds: “The overarching need at the moment, given the constraints and the lack of international ones [tourism], is that companies need to act. You have to be able to get out of it as best you can, and life beyond level zero has to come very quickly. We are, more and more people, vaccinated, double vaccinated, and we have to get around that so that companies can do business. “

The Scottish Government has committed to working with the sector on plans and pilot projects for the reopening as soon as it is safe to do so. It has also allocated £ 25 million to support the work of the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group (STERG). Vacation and day voucher programs, destination marketing funds and investments in staff are planned.

It is also recognized that businesses need more than a direct injection of cash. The government has hired VisitScotland and the corporate authorities to develop a detailed and fully calculated five-year recovery plan that will cover broader areas such as infrastructure and recruitment.

Duncan McConchie is a rural business owner who benefited from the surge in domestic tourism that came with the lockdown easing, but faced staffing and transportation problems. He is the managing director of Laggan, a venue in Dumfries and Galloway. He says, “The countryside is so busy. People take this opportunity to escape the cities and come to the countryside, so our accommodation is well equipped. “

McConchie even successfully opened a restaurant on the premises during the lockdown. But while the restaurant is doing well, it is struggling to recruit staff. This is partly due to Brexit – hospitality and tourism are particularly dependent on migrant workers – and partly to the fact that many of these workers returned to their home countries at the beginning of the pandemic and have not yet returned.

He says, “Around us in Dumfries and Galloway we may have four or five restaurants nearby that aren’t open because they can’t find staff. Those stores, they can’t find cooks, can’t find people in front of the house, so they just aren’t open. Human resources is such a big issue.

“And how do we overcome it? We have to look back to schools and the perception of hospitality as an industry. It is not perceived as a career aspiration. Maybe it’s because of the parents of these kids … maybe it’s because schools don’t suggest hospitality is a profession, but it really is, and it’s a good career and, my God, it’s well paid. A huge rebranding and relaunch of hospitality has to be carried out. “

His business also suffered from a lack of investment in transport. Last November, McConchie made the difficult decision to close the Laggan Outdoor Activity Center, not because it was struggling to attract people, but rather because it was struggling to comply with the traffic restrictions associated with the center’s building permits. He was told that in order to increase the maximum number of vehicles the road could use to reach the area, he would have to pay £ 400,000 personally to upgrade it.

“We have attracted 20,000 people each year, which ultimately was part of our downfall. We created a lot of local jobs, but now everything is gone and everything is wrapped up. Another local activity center has also closed. Things that used to bring many people to this region as a cumulative offer are no longer open. It’s a real shame. They incriminated a small rural company that was identical to IKEA and Tesco – and they can include that in their price, we can’t. “

Such issues were addressed in Scotland’s Scotland Outlook 2030 tourism strategy released in March 2020, just two weeks before the UK lockdown. Committed to making Scotland a “World Leader in Tourism for the 21st Century”, this document identified four key areas: attracting and developing a skilled workforce, creating sustainable travel destinations, creating unforgettable experiences for visitors and building resilience for businesses.

Vicki Miller, VisitScotland’s director of marketing, says that despite the tough 15 months, the tourism industry “is still very much convinced of the 2030 vision”. She explains: “It’s all about the way there, it will be a little different because we are not [starting] from a growth position where we were in 2019. “

There is concern that major business changes as the Scottish Government implements this agenda could further harm an already ailing sector. However, complaints about irresponsible tourism that made headlines last summer when people set off for the Highlands make it clear why the pre-pandemic strategy objectives must be at the fore of the recovery strategy.

Miller says VisitScotland has put in place a visitor management framework to address some of these issues. She says: “With this we can shape future investments in new facilities, not just temporary facilities that deal with special problems, but new facilities.

“But what we also did in the process is that we have come together as a cross-agency group to examine coordinated education and marketing of how one can enjoy the landscape responsibly so that one has a great experience.”

She also says the organization is keen to promote areas that are “a little undiscovered”, both to ease pressure on the most popular areas and to ensure that more parts of Scotland benefit economically when tourism recovers.

Riddell Graham, VisitScotland’s Industry and Destination Development Director, added, “The future of Scotland’s repositioning as a responsible tourism destination must now be the right path for the industry. The timing of this message and the way we connect with the industry is still a huge task … it is not about encouraging many and many and many new visitors to Scotland. It’s about encouraging the right visitors to have the right experience. “

Overall, the industry is confident that tourism will come back and that the demand for Scotland travel will increase. It is clear, however, that there is a way to ensure Scotland is ready for this, both in terms of businesses surviving the pandemic and ensuring that the infrastructure and facilities are in place.

The key is to listen to the companies involved, which STERG and VisitScotland are committed to. Graham says, “We have a call every two weeks with all industry organizations. Every week we have a long list of negative feedback we give to the government to say there are still concerns and it goes into great detail, but it really matters to an individual company …

“Well, at the end of the day, the government can only do what it can with the money it has, and then it’s about deliberately trying to make the biggest difference. But yes, we still get requests from companies that are really, really struggling. And I think this will continue until all of this is hopefully over at some point. ”