Dear First Minister
Like everyone in the country, Scotland’s tourism and hospitality industry is alarmed at the news that a new variant of Covid-19 has been discovered within the UK and is presenting a heightened level of threat to us all and the government’s strategy to control the virus.
Your subsequent announcement that restrictions will be tightened for the foreseeable future is clear and understood and is a decisive response to the health risk. The ask of the industry is that the Scottish Government now delivers a similarly swift and committed response to the economic consequences of this action.
An additional upweighted ‘extraordinary’ package of funding must urgently be identified from within the Scottish and UK budgets to support both our frontline businesses and the supply chains over what will now be a significantly more challenging period than any of us had previously understood or anticipated.