Nicola Sturgeon has said her “heart breaks” thinking about businesses that have suffered a negative impact from lockdown measures.
Her comments came at the daily briefing on Monday when she was asked about potential job losses at a hotel chain.
Around 241 members of staff across seven locations in the Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels have entered a consultation period which CEO Stephen Leckie said has left him “personally devastated”.
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During the briefing, the First Minister spoke of a “determination” for tourism to open up again as quickly as it is safe to do so across the country.
She said: “Tourism is important to Scotland financially and economically, but it is important in terms of our brand as a country and our reputation internationally.
“We want to get it back to normal as quickly as possible.
“I would not be doing any favours to any sector of our economy if we moved too fast with this and allowed the virus to run out of control again.
“But we want to see an opening up about economy generally and tourism and hospitality in particular as quickly as we possibly can – we set out the potential phasing for that in the routemap.
“We are making significant progress against this virus but it is a very sensitive and crucial juncture and we need to continue to make that progress in order to have the safe foundation to start to lift these restrictions more meaningfully in the weeks to come.”
The group has two hotels in Perthshire (Crieff Hydro and Murraypark Hotel) with two more in the Scottish Borders (Peebles Hydro and The Park) and three around Glencoe (Isles of Glencoe Hotel, Ballachullish Hotel and Kingshouse Hotel).
Ms Sturgeon said Tourism Secretary Fergus Ewing is liaising closely with businesses in the sector overall and the Scottish Government “will carefully consider the form and nature of support that is required in the months to come”.
She was also asked about the possibility of reopening self-catering accommodation if there is no chance of hotels returning in the near future.
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Ms Sturgeon replied: “Without putting dates on it, my message is if we all continue to take the actions that we’ve been taking to suppress the virus then we’ll be able to do these things more quickly and we will do it as quickly as possible.
“My heart breaks for businesses – family-owned businesses perhaps in particular – that have invested their blood, sweat and tears over many years in building up successful businesses to be hit with what we’ve all been hit with in the last few months.
“It is absolutely devastating. It’s difficult for me to find the words that properly conveys that and that’s why I’m so determined that we go forward in a way and at a pace that gets the economy back into operation as quickly as possible.
“But the point I can’t escape, and there is no point in me trying to tell people that I can escape it, is that if we get that pace wrong and if we go more quickly than we should, then we risk setting things back.”
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