The loss to the Scottish economy of one flight of holidaymakers to one Spanish destination this summer could be as much as £38,000 – while the overall loss of all holiday flights to Spain could be more than £460 million.
The figures come from Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association calculations based on a poll of 1,000 people.
It found that that in the five years before the pandemic, business travel accounted for 9% of all overseas trips taken, volunteering attracted 3% and 5% of Scots went overseas for study, leaving 83% of trips made for the purposes of visiting family or friends, attending life events and holidays.
Only 10% of those surveyed have been overseas since the start of the pandemic, while 36% have cancelled at least one holiday, 28% have postponed and 17% have rebooked.
The sample of the population who responded to the survey cancelled at least 363 holidays between them.
SPAA president Joanne Dooey said “Pre-Covid, Spain was the most popular destination for international flights from Scotland with 2.4 million passenger journeys a year. So, just one full flight – 200 passengers – from a Scottish airport to the Balearic islands could put up to £38,000 into Scottish tills. This is income which has been, and continues to be, lost to Scottish businesses.
“Add to this the spend on departure day, when 63% of us buy food, more than half of us buy drinks in the airport; 41% spend in shops; 34% of us buy duty free and almost a third of us take a taxi, then the catastrophic financial impact of the grounding of travel is affecting many sectors which are not directly in the travel industry.
“It’s an argument we’ve been trying very hard to make the Scottish government listen to. Travel matters – and not just to those directly employed in the travel sector.
“Our survey shows that people truly want to be allowed the choice to travel from Scotland. And whilst the addition of some countries to the green watch list from 30 June is welcome, it doesn’t go far enough.
“Pre-Covid, 72% of survey respondents went overseas at least once in a typical year. It also tells us that almost two-thirds of ordinary Scots feel ‘devastated’, ‘disappointed’, ‘confused’ or ‘upset’ at the current travel restrictions and more than half (57%) would travel overseas within the next 12 months if they were able – with 17% of all surveyed saying they would be willing to travel in the next three months or sooner. We want the Scottish government to show us their data, to trust the vaccine and to make testing more affordable.”
The cost of testing and the difficulty of accessing tests abroad along with the need to prove double vaccination status are seen by those surveyed to be the least important barriers to Scots travelling in 2021.
The possibility of having to quarantine on arrival in an overseas destination or on return to Scotland are seen as the biggest obstacles.
The survey also revealed that 96% of Scots who travelled overseas between March 2020 and today felt ‘very’ or ‘fairly safe’. Just 4% of overseas travellers felt ‘not very safe’.
Dooey said: “Twelve months ago, we never envisaged that we’d have such easy-to-use, rapid and robust testing. So why are we not using it in a cost-effective way to stimulate travel and all of the economic benefits which outbound travel brings? And why does it cost more to be tested in Scotland than in England?”