Restarting tourism safely

Guidance to support Scotland’s tourism and hospitality sector to reopen safely has been published.

The industry has been asked to prepare for reopening on 15 July, if sufficient progress is made to move to phase 3 of the route-map.

It sets out the key public health measures that will need to be taken to allow safe reopening, including:

• Establishing physical distancing taking account of organisational capacity, queue management, signage and markings
• Enhanced hand hygiene measures and cleaning practice
• Advice on workforce planning, including training and equality issues
• Guidance for customers to ensure they know how to plan ahead and engage safely with the tourism and hospitality sector

The guidance has been developed in partnership with industry, unions and public health bodies.

Tourism Secretary Fergus Ewing said:

“We want a strong tourism and hospitality sector to help drive Scotland's economic recovery and future prosperity.

“Industry is telling us what it needs and we are listening. Last week we provided clarity on a potential reopening date and announced a specialist task force to look at the recovery process we face. Now we have published guidance to help get the sector up and running again safely. We have also pushed the UK Government for more support, including a VAT reduction and an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

“The coming months will be extremely challenging but the Scottish Government is doing everything in its power to ensure this vital sector bounces back.”

Visit Scotland Chief Executive Malcolm Roughead said:

“We are delighted to start seeing real clarity for the tourism industry – both through the proposed date and these new guidelines which we will help to promote across Scotland.  It is understandable that people will be anxious about travelling and crucial that they are reassured that the tourism industry is doing everything it can to restart the holiday season as safely as possible. Everyone is excited about being able to get tourism up and running again and these guidelines will give the industry the insight they need to reopen.”

 Background

 Coronavirus (COVID-19): tourism and hospitality sector guidance

 Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for retail, tourism and hospitality customers

The guidance is designed for use by the whole sector, including:

• all accommodation providers (hotels, B&Bs, self-catering, caravan/holiday parks etc. )
• visitor attractions
• marine and adventure tourism
• other activity or experience tourism operations/centres
• tour operators
• pubs and restaurants
• retail aspects of tourism
• natural spaces insofar as they relate to tourism, such as the National Parks