The Scottish Tourism Alliance and UKHospitality have penned a joint letter to Alister Jack MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, with renewed calls for urgent solutions to be put forward from the UK Government to address the current recruitment crisis.
Says the letter, “Tourism is a force for good; it can stimulate economic wealth across our country and communities and bring the inward investment Scotland so needs and deserves.
“Our ability to invest in our businesses and tourism product however is so hugely compromised by the issues around the availability of workforce. This was a key issue prior to Covid; the impact of the pandemic, exacerbated by the UK’s exit from the EU and the removal of such a critically important flow of labour has plunged the sector further into crisis with no apparent way forward.
“The time to remove barriers to our ability to trade and our competitiveness as a tourism destination on a macro and micro level is now, with the creation of policies which will see our industry thrive in addition to the removal of existing and proposed policies which will see our businesses struggle to survive.”
The letter calls for:
- The UK Government to reconsider the introduction of a Covid Recovery Visa
- The UK Government to revisit the Skilled Worker Shortage Occupation list with a view to expanding the criteria to support the urgent recruitment needs of our tourism sector and other sectors such as transport and food and drink
- Review the costs of workforce visas to the employer to make it more affordable for our sector to recruit from abroad
- Clarity around the government’s plans to support jobs and the economy beyond the end of furlough this month.