Scottish Tourism Emergency Recovery Group - outdoor visitor attractions

Scot­tish Tour­ism Emer­gency Recov­ery Group Out­door Vis­it­or attrac­tions sub group

Once the Q&A has been pop­u­lated by this sub­group, it will be shared with the full STREG and the fol­low­ing stake­hold­ers: ScotEn­vLink, SLE, NFU(S), COSLA, FLS and Sportscot­land and oth­ers for com­ment and development.

The final­ised Q&A (22^nd May) will then allow for clear mes­saging to be put to SG Min­is­ters for sign off and then for pro­mo­tion by Vis­itscot­land and part­ners. These mes­sages only address any early phase of eas­ing restric­tions. Q&A

1. Is there a com­mon stand­ard for Stay­ing Safe guid­ance which the tour­ism sec­tor can use and which will bring con­fid­ence to visitors?

• The Hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism sec­tor is pro­du­cing guid­ance and is sub­mit­ting this to the UK gov­ern­ment for con­sid­er­a­tion. This will be developed for Scot­tish spe­cif­ic interests and will need to be endorsed by the health sec­tor and Scot­tish Ministers.
• This would be com­mu­nic­ated to busi­nesses and give a reas­sur­ing mes­sage to vis­it­ors. — lead here is STERG with coordin­a­tion by VS.
• Sec­tor spe­cif­ic guid­ance will take account of pub­lished guid­ance in oth­er inter­de­pend­ent sec­tors, such as trans­port, as well as cor­res­pond­ing guid­ance issued by the UK Government

1. Have there been changes to SG guid­ance – can people travel to take more exercise?

• Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment guid­ance hasn’t changed bey­ond being able to take exer­cise more than once a day but the mes­sage is still Stay loc­al – please do not travel in your car to take exer­cise; please make use of the paths, open spaces and quiet roads in your own loc­al area take exer­cise loc­ally and not to travel.
• The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has pub­lished its Frame­work on Decision Mak­ing which sets out the key prin­ciples that will guide changes to the cur­rent lock-down, when it is safe to do so – it also invites views from the pub­lic to help inform decision making.

1. There is sure to be large amount of pent up demand to vis­it the coun­tryside and spe­cific­ally hon­ey­pots when restric­tions are eased. How will this be man­aged? Communications

• Com­mu­nic­a­tion of clear, con­sist­ent and simple mes­sages is key and this is being developed so that all pub­lic bod­ies, land man­agers and organ­isa­tions are using the same core mes­sages as lock­down eases in Scotland.
• Com­mu­nic­ate altern­at­ive loc­a­tions for people to vis­it in due course to try and ease pres­sure on hotspots.
• But need to adopt a cau­tious approach — only places where there is infra­struc­ture to cope
• Vis­itscot­land and SG are liais­ing with oth­er groups who man­age the coun­tryside to take account of con­cerns and ensure con­sist­ency of mes­sage and approach.
• The views of loc­al com­munit­ies will be taken into account when tak­ing decisions on open­ing of spaces and facilities

Sites and Facilities

• Vis­it­or man­age­ment plans are being pre­pared in the two Nation­al Parks and by SNH for their NNRs and they will be liais­ing with Loc­al Author­it­ies and Police Scot­land on traffic man­age­ment spe­cific­ally on roads to key vis­it­or hotspots.
• SNH has con­trac­ted a waste dis­pos­al com­pany to tidy up NNR vis­it­or infra­struc­ture to make ready sites for re-open­ing. SNH is offer­ing this ser­vice to NGO neigh­bours and oth­ers so that sites are tidied.

Staff

• Where neces­sary PPE for staff and appro­pri­ate risk assess­ments are key to enabling sites and facil­it­ies to reopen.
• The Cairngorms NPA is dir­ectly recruit­ing sea­son­al rangers to assist with vis­it­or man­age­ment in the Park.

1. Will we move at dif­fer­ent paces in dif­fer­ent parts of the country?

• Need one con­sist­ent over­all mes­sage with each area man­aging loc­al issues and com­mu­nic­at­ing any chal­lenges back to SG as they arise.
• Scot­tish Min­is­ters have been clear that decisions taken in Scot­land will be made on the best avail­able sci­ence and sup­por­ted by evid­ence. This approach will con­tin­ue to be the case. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will pub­lish fur­ther advice on the devel­op­ment of decision mak­ing in due course and will give due regard to guid­ance issued at UK level.

1. Will facil­it­ies be open if I travel to take exercise

• The main issue here is the impact these facil­it­ies have on the R num­ber — that will be the key factor in the phas­ing sequence of what opens when may not be open ini­tially. Take this in to account when plan­ning your travel to take exer­cise as there may also be few facil­it­ies on your planned route.
• For key des­tin­a­tions (Nation­al Parks etc) it is pro­posed that vis­it­ors are informed through social media, web­sites about what facil­it­ies are open. This can also be done for landown­ing bod­ies e.g. SNH, FLS etc.

Example key messages

• SG will give suf­fi­cient notice of eas­ing of access restric­tions so that you can make ready your out­door vis­it­or attractions
• Guid­ance for the tour­ism busi­ness sec­tor so that they can oper­ate safely will be made avail­able when endorsed and signed off by H&S bod­ies and Ministers
• Traffic man­age­ment plans will be pre­pared with Police Scot­land and Trans­port Scotland
• Start plan­ning your vis­it now – dis­perse the load and go some­where new
• Fol­low the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code and take away all your litter;

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