More than £300m of tourism income has been lost in Scotland’s first national park because of lockdowns, a local charity said today.
And the Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs say lower advance bookings from England and overseas could another £200m in the months ahead.
Tourism and hospitality businesses are ‘looking into the abyss’, said James Fraser, formerly chief executive of the area’s tourist boar and now chair of the Friends.
He warned the current prolonged lockdown, along with recent Scottish Government advice not to book Easter or summer holidays, means many tourism businesses in the national park and throughout Scotland are ‘in limbo’ and cannot plan ahead.
“Fixed costs are increasing due to the recent lengthy cold snap and there are severely depressed levels of income from forward booking deposits, which are normally buoyant at this time of year,” he added.
“They are becoming more desperate.
”While the various closure and sectoral grant schemes are helpful they fall well short of monthly fixed overheads with many businesses having now exhausted their reserves and borrowing more heavily on top of previous borrowings.
“More permanent tourism business closures have taken place and more are inevitable the longer the lockdown continues.”T
“When businesses eventually do re-open, various trading restrictions are likely still to be in place limiting capacity and trading potential meaning they could be quite exposed in cashflow terms without more support.”
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Scotland, with over 4m visitors a year generating spend of £420m and sustaining over 6,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Mr Fraser said there had been a ‘massive dip’ in forward bookings from the overseas and English markets and there is expected to be greater reliance on the Scottish market this year.
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