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Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy submission of 24 February 2022

PE1889/D - Financial support for self-employed people in the travel industry

Update on COVID-19 Omicron business support for Travel Agents

On 10 February the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise met with the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association and ABTA (The Travel Association and formerly known as the Association of British Travel Agents) to hear directly the challenges facing the outbound travel sector and consider options. 

I have written to the UK Minister for Business and Industry on the issues raised in this petition.

We are disappointed not to have received a response from UKG but Scottish Government has committed £375m support package for firms impacted by the necessary measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron. That package includes £200m reprioritised from the Scottish Government’s expected consequentials budget, £175m made available by the Treasury. Additionally, we have also reprioritised £4m from existing Scottish Government funding for tourism and events. Following consultation with businesses, I recently announced a further business support funding of £5.9m specifically for the Outbound Travel sector.

Officials are working with stakeholders to set up a sector specific scheme to target funds to those most impacted, including self-employed individuals that do not have premises. Details of the eligibility, and how and when to apply will be published on the Scottish Government website and on the Find Business Support website as soon as they are available.

In order to support the recovery of the tourism sector as a whole, the Scottish Government is supporting the most affected tourism businesses by Omicron. On January 12th, we announced £9m for tourism businesses impacted the most by the necessary public health advice to stem the spread of Omicron in December. Six sectors are in scope, which are coach operators, hostels, visitor attractions, marine/outdoor, day tour operators and inbound tour operators. On February 10th, the Scottish Government announced a £7.5m Top Up scheme to provide additional funding to the Scotland Inbound Tour Operators to support the sector during the re-opening of the market (i.e., lifting of travel restrictions, etc.) and allow them to deliver activities that would otherwise be unaffordable. This sector has a positive impact throughout the supply chain in Scotland. Payments to businesses will be made before the end of March 2022.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, we have worked closely with businesses to understand the impact of the Omicron variant and the necessary restrictions introduced. Businesses asked us, where possible, to target funds at those most impacted by measures introduced in December, rather than blanket funding. It takes a bit longer to get these targeted schemes set up and therefore money paid out, but means businesses hardest hit will get more money.

As with all our previous business support funding, the Scottish Government will publish management information on funding paid out to businesses.

I hope this update is helpful.