Scotland risks losing its travel industry as traveller confidence deteriorates further due to ‘safe list Hokey Cokey’ where countries are in and out of government quarantine restrictions at a few hours’ notice.
The dire warning of a “tsunami” of job losses came from the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association as 37% of members reported losses to date of more than £1 million due to Covid-19.
More than a quarter (26%) have suffered losses to date of between £101,000 and £500,000.
Since lockdown, 80% of travel agents have experienced a drop in business of more than 75%.
This was compounded when Spain was removed from the safe list, with all Scottish agents reporting no bookings or a significant drop in bookings at this time.
The removal of Spain from the ‘safe list’ and the recognition that the list of countries which have quarantine requirements on return is extremely fluid and can change at any time, has led to more than half of agents having made no, or very few, new bookings.
The SPAA has been calling consistently for a regionalised approach to quarantine to stimulate the market.
Association president Joanne Dooey said: “We have written to the Scottish and UK governments throughout the pandemic, advising them of the perilous state of the travel sector in Scotland and did so again last week.
“We have asked them to consider urgently a tailored extension of the furlough scheme to March 2021, a more nuanced approach to quarantine, support through rates and rent deferrals or reductions and robust airport testing.
“Outbound travellers are worth £1.7 billion to Scotland and outbound travel sustains more than 26,000 jobs for our country.
“The business model for travel is unique and it means that travel agents pay all income received for a holiday to the travel operator.
“The agent only receives payment for their work 10 to 12 weeks before a trip begins. Not only have our members had virtually no income for new holiday bookings made in 2020, but they have had to refund ‘lost’ holidays this summer, leaving them with negative income. The stark truth is that most of our members are unlikely to generate income until around March 2021 at the earliest.
“We’re facing a tsunami of redundancies in the Scottish travel sector.
“More than 50% of travel agents in our survey have either made redundancies already or have notified employees that their positions are at risk.
“Almost 90% of travel agents tell us that they have furloughed all or some of their staff, with 75% of these agents furloughing three quarters of their staff or more.
“Without an extended furlough scheme, or some form of tailored support, there will undoubtedly be waves of further job and business losses.”