Major tourist attractions have not enjoyed a “stay boom” despite an increase in home vacations, study finds.
Only 48% of sites are currently fully open amid the pandemic.
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Another 41 percent operate with reduced hours or limited facilities.
Revenue is down more than 50% at a third of attractions, compared to the same period in 2019.
And one in five has less than three months of cash reserves.
Research conducted by the Caledonian University of Glasgow and the Scottish Tourist Attractions Association found that 34% of 180 organizations and 353 individual sites are not at an economically sustainable level.
ASVA Managing Director Gordon Morrison said: “The pandemic has had a devastating impact on Scotland’s tourist attractions and these latest findings provide further evidence that this impact is still very much felt.
“I cannot stress enough that there has been no ‘travel boom’ or widespread economic recovery for our industry this year.
“We are facing a very difficult winter period ahead.
“With very few international visitors and restrictive regulations that severely limited viable trade in the spring and summer, the window of opportunity to trade successfully has been extremely limited.
“We are concerned with the survival, not the recovery, of much of our industry as we enter the off-season. “
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The survey of attractions – including the V&A in Dundee, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, the Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling and the Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh – found that only 8% have a number of visitors equal to or greater than pre-pandemic levels.
Some 48.6 percent of tourist sites said they faced challenges recruiting staff, with managerial positions being the most difficult to fill.
Professor John Lennon, director of GCU’s Moffat Center, said: “Tourism, like many other industries in Scotland, has been greatly affected by the loss of European workers as a direct result of Brexit.
“The ability to adequately and securely staff operations has become the next insurmountable challenge. “