Staycation tourists would be much-needed boost for Western Isles, say hospitality bosses

Businesses across the Outer Hebrides are reopening their doors after an easing of coronavirus restrictions, but with others still shut down, it has led to calls for assurances about the months ahead.

The Western Isles moved to Level 3 COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday at 6pm, as announced by the Scottish Government.

This allows the reopening of non-essential retail and hospitality businesses – although only until 6pm and with a ban on the sale of alcohol.

Brian Currie, who owns the Craigard Hotel on the Isle of Barra, says opening his restaurant right now would be a “non-starter” because of limits on group numbers and the alcohol ban.

“I’d be losing more money than I am now,” he told the Glasgow Standard.

“It’s not worth me ramping up to open to not be able to serve alcoholic drinks in a pub – it’s like taking your car to a garage and they can’t fix your car.

“It would mean getting the hotel ready from a state of shutdown to being ready to open – that would involve dumping a lot of our old stock, bring my staff back out of furlough, lots of cleaning and preparation – it’s just not worth it for the trade I’d get.”

From the 26th April the Scottish Government says it hopes to ease lockdown further, including allowing “travel within mainland Scotland”, if coronavirus cases continue to fall.

However Mr Currie is concerned how Scotland’s routemap will be applied, with fears the Western Isles could be placed in a lower tier of restrictions, therefore preventing travel from the mainland.

The hotelier says he has around 200 guests booked in between April and May, and is calling for assurances that he will be able to host staycation visitors.

“It’s something I’m very worried about,” he said. “I believe we, Scotland, all went into this together and we need to come out of it together.

“We have around £15,000 worth of room bookings that month, so we’d be losing that plus our guest spend from having an evening meal, drinks in the bar and so on – there’s no grant or any amount of funding that would cover that.

“If they’re not going to allow travel to the Isles – put us in a really low tier so that the locals can go out and have a meal and a drink; it would mean cancelling bookings for around 200 guests but the fact that we’d have local trade would lessen the blow.”

Artizan Coffee Shop, on the Isle of Lewis, has managed to reopen under Level 3 after being closed since the end of January.

Owners, Seamus Cunningham and Chris Wilkie, have been making preparations for a safe return and say they are looking forward to welcoming customers back.

“It feels like New Year or something,” Mr Cunningham said. “Level 3 seems like so much more than it did pre-lockdown, it almost feels like some sense of normality.

“It’s very exciting – it feels like a step in the right direction which is just great.”

The Western Isles have been in Level 4 lockdown since the end of January, with the NHS hospital on Stornoway reaching near full capacity at the time.

In the last two weeks though, there have been just four new COVID-19 cases recorded in the NHS Western Isles health board area.

Mr Wilkie said: “I think in the islands, when we were in Level 1 and the mainland was in Level 3 or 4, it definitely didn’t mean people here got complacent.

“They just wanted to look past it, see towards the future and say “we would love this business to still be here, we want to support this business and its staff.”

“In the best way they could, they rallied round, and we expect them to do the same thing now.”

Mr Cunningham added: “Tourism is a huge – if not the biggest – industry up here [Isle of Lewis] so it is a massive difference for the island.”

He continued: “What Covid has proved for us – we’ve always had a good local base but we didn’t realise how solid that local base truly was.

“We, as a business, decided to stay open as much as we possibly could for this year, and we have been so well supported by the community.

“It’s just incredible and we’re so fortunate and grateful for that.”

Fraser Nicoll