Support for inbound tourism

A £6 million fund is being made available to support inbound tourism and those businesses who promote and sell packages to international markets.  

The Scotland Inbound Tour Operators - COVID 19 Business Support and Continuity Fund is open to inbound tour operator and Destination Management Companies that manage travel packages.

The funding is part of a wider package of support for tourism and hospitality businesses from the Scottish Government totalling £104.3 million pounds. 

Businesses that rely on international visitors for income have been hit particularly hard by the impact of Covid-19, since the crisis began last year. The one-off fund will help provide financial stability over the next four to six months and to help firms prepare for late 2021 business.

The fund will be managed by VisitScotland, with input from the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the Scottish Destination Management Association, the Scottish Incoming Golf Tourism Operators Association and UK Inbound, however applications are welcome from non-members of these groups. 

It is one of nine funding streams administered by Scotland’s national tourism organisation on behalf of the Scottish Government.

VisitScotland have redeployed more than 100 staff from other roles to help process applications as quickly as possible.

“Ensuring as many businesses as possible survive and can recover is our main priority at present.

“International visitors are a hugely important part of our visitor economy and therefore it is critical the inbound industry is able to meet the demand when overseas travel can resume.

“As much of our available resources as possible are being dedicated to delivering the funding to businesses as quickly as possible.”

“Whilst 2020 was a year without customers, the true resilience of the international golf travel market for Scotland is evidenced in a recent internal survey of SIGTOA members, which showed only 7% of 2020 bookings cancelled with the remainder moving their reservations into 2021. 

“Today’s announcement of the new Scotland Inbound Tour Operators Business Support and Continuity Fund is the lifeline that the industry needs to make up for a year without income and will allow us all to prepare to service the huge pent up demand that now exists from international golfers. 

“We still face massive challenges with some groups moving into 2022 but at least now we have support that will allow us to manage that in the short term.”

Businesses can register an expression of interest online from 11am on Friday 22 January until 5pm on Friday 29 January via https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/funding/inbound-tour-operators-fund  

For further information of VisitScotland’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, go to https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/advice/coronavirus