After recent political theatrics, one could be forgiven for thinking the Edinburgh Festival had kicked off early.

But it isn’t until August that we will see the wholehearted return of one of the world’s biggest arts festivals to Scotland’s capital and with it will come a welcome boost for our creative, tourism and hospitality industries. And while children in Scotland will be returning to the school gates in a few weeks (not that I’m counting), the main tourism season north of the border will run until at least September.

Unsurprisingly, small businesses allied to Scotland’s visitor economy will be looking to squeeze every drop of value from this vital summer season.

The Fraser of Allander Institute recently published a report suggesting there are reasons to be cheerful for Scottish tourism. With visitor numbers on the increase and fewer barriers to accessing shops, restaurants, and cultural venues than we’ve seen since 2019, there’s much more scope for trade than in the last few years.

On the other hand, even if firms manage to increase their turnover, they’re going to find it tough to balance the books.

Costs, you hardly need reminded, are up across the board – most significantly in fuel and utilities. On the latter front, small businesses remain stuck between a rock and a hard place – lacking both the price protections domestic customers receive and the negotiating power of big multinationals.

We see worrying signs that, across the UK, businesses which have survived the years of Covid restrictions are now facing really tough choices – nearly one in seven is considering shrinking, selling or shutting in the next year according to FSB research.

Consider the Ubiquitous Chip – an icon of Glasgow’s West End which, it was announced a few weeks ago, will be sold, along with the Hanoi Bikeshop and Stravaigin, by its independent owners to a nationwide chain. It is of course the right and duty of any business owner, small or large, to make the decisions that are right for them and the future of their company. But, at the same time, local and independent businesses are critical to the social, cultural and economic fabric of local places across Scotland. They can be one of the reasons that locals are proud of their community, and a key attraction for visitors.

So, even though Covid rules have been lifted, independent tourism and hospitality firms still need our support.

For all of us as customers, the ask is simple: shop local; eat local; drink local. Maybe even visit a castle local.

This might require a little extra research on your part, but if you’re travelling around Scotland over the summer, have a think about all the businesses you’re planning to visit. Is that shop run by a local family? Can that distillery list generations of owners going back centuries? Can the person pulling your pints tell you about the local ale they’re pouring?

For political decision-makers, and specifically those looking to become our new prime minister, we’re asking them to cut small businesses some slack.

The UK lost hundreds of thousands of small businesses over lockdowns, with tens of thousands north of the Border, and without action history could be repeated.

Rightly we’ve seen the UK Government provide households with some help with their spiralling energy bills. But many small and micro businesses are in the same boat and can’t be overlooked.

New council administrations in Scotland have an opportunity to look at how they can support local firms by, for example, freezing or reducing fees and charges while firms face down mounting costs.

And, as Holyrood explores new approaches to local economic development, such as Community Wealth Building, ministers must look at how public bodies in Scotland could better support the local communities in which they’re located. For example, can we see procurement budgets more focused on local firms and more public services located in the heart of our towns and cities?

While the lifting of Covid rules might have set the scene for recovery, the small business show won’t go on without a strong supporting cast of policymakers and the public.

Colin Borland is director of devolved nations for the Federation of Small Businesses.