This week in the Scottish Parliament, Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy called a debate surrounding the Government’s record on tourism. In her submitted motion, she notes that numerous failures have left tourism vulnerable to contraction, despite the sector on paper is one of the best opportunities for growing Scotland’s economy.
The motion begins: “The Parliament believes that the tourism sector is a crucial element in the future sustainability of the Scottish economy; regrets the SNP-Scottish Green Party administration’s failure to prioritise tourism, and the weaknesses in Scotland’s infrastructure”. It then continues, noting the failures of the Scottish government regarding ferry services, road widening, the introduction of a visitor levy and “an anti-business agenda”, all of which have hampered the growth of the tourism industry to the detriment of those employed in the sector.
The tourism sector currently makes up 5 per cent of Scotland’s overall economy, and 8 per cent of the nation’s employment, with over 150 million visits to the country being made in 2022. Of these visits, most came from within the UK, though tourism from Europe, North America and the rest of the world continues to grow. Since being identified as a key area of growth for Scotland’s economy in 2015, the tourism sector has outpaced overall economic growth, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the sector contributed £6 billion to Scotland’s GDP and twice that amount to the wider Scottish supply chain. It remains the sector with the greatest opportunity for growth, and if given adequate support, it can create a sufficient and sustainable economy for the future.
The continued influx of tourists to Scotland helps support small and local businesses, which make up 97 per cent of Scottish Sustainable Tourism registered enterprises. These are often the beneficiaries of money spent by tourists, especially in more rural areas, money which is then invested back into the local community. This in turn helps Minority Ethnic Group-led businesses, which both make up a disproportionate share of Scottish small businesses and have doubled in number since 2020. In light of this, the Scottish Government should be prioritising tourism to the country as a means to both improve the economies of small towns and villages, as well as a way to encourage the vibrancy and diversity of small businesses across the nation.
However, Smith’s motion focuses on the Government’s failures of ferry services and improving Scotland’s road network as examples of where the SNP-Green coalition is damaging both tourism and Scotland’s economy. This infrastructural weakness has made much of rural Scotland, one of the most desirable regions of the country to visitors, inaccessible to tourists. While rural areas have been let down by these failures, in Scotland’s cities the introduction of a tourist tax threatens to harm the local economy in the country’s most populous areas. Combining both of these failures means that Scotland’s tourism industry, despite having shown considerable growth in recent years, is now threatened by its Government.