Tourism and hospitality sector given guidance on reopening

Hotels, restaurants and pubs have been given guidance on how to safely reopen when Scotland enters phase three of easing lockdown.

The tourism and hospitality sector has been asked to prepare for reopening on July 15 – providing that sufficient progress has been made to move to the next stage of relaxing restrictions.

The Scottish Government has set out public health measures that will need to be taken, including:

Physical distancing which takes account of capacity, queue management, signs and markings

Enhanced hand hygiene measures and cleaning practice

Advice on workforce planning, including training and equality issues

Guidance for customers to make sure they know how to plan ahead and engage safely with the sector

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.”