Grouse shooters boost rural areas on Covid-hit visits
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Grouse shooting visitors to Scotland spent over £3500 per person this season before a shot was even fired over the country’s heather moors.
The statistics come from a visitor survey undertaken jointly by Scotland’s regional moorland groups and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
Survey papers were completed on 22 grouse shooting estates, helping to quantify the level of visitor spend in remote rural communities adversely affected by Covid-19 constraints.
Despite a lack of overseas shooters this season because of global quarantine rules, each visitor spent an average of £3593.18 in local communities, before shoot costs were even added in.
That represents an average spend of over £450 per day in some of the country’s most remote communities, with local accommodation, food, shops and garages all benefitting.
While average spend on car hire from air and ferry hubs saw nearly £327 per person going into the wider Scottish economy, the majority of the spend was in local, economically fragile areas.
The majority of respondents were internal UK visitors, with a smaller number from the Netherlands; the average visit lasting one week.
The economic injection, at a critical time, dwarves the average spend per trip by overseas and domestic visitors to Scotland recorded in VisitScotland’s last insights report from 2018.
The tourism body’s Key Facts on Tourism in Scotland 2018 found that average overseas visitor spend in Scotland was £624 per trip, with £234 per trip spent by domestic visitors.
Despite Covid-19 impacting the grouse shooting season this year, the survey organisers believe the shoots which did go ahead will have helped businesses to survive and retain staff.
“A lot of work went into sector guidance with Scottish Government but the season was always going to be different, due to the pandemic and reduced overseas clientèle," said Lianne MacLennan, co-ordinator of Scotland’s regional moorland groups.
“This survey shows how important grouse shoots are to fragile areas. There has been a lot of businesses very glad of having high spending visitors around during an awful year. Rural economies were disproportionately impacted by lockdown and we haven’t yet seen the end of unemployment and closures because of Covid-19."
Lowest rates of accommodation occupancy in Scotland are traditionally found in remote rural areas, highlighting further the importance of shooting parties to these dispersed regions.
The Dutch respondents in the survey spent an average of £3228.57 per person and used a mix of car, train, flight and ferry in order to fulfil their sporting holiday in Scotland.
Between them they spent £8850 on accommodation during their trip, boosting local providers.
“Most government enterprise agencies and tourist bodies are fighting over themselves to attract high spending individuals to Scotland. Grouse shooting does this. Scotland has a premium product, in global terms, and the spend helps communities. It sustains land management jobs and keeps families in homes. With the economy set to shrink, there is a relief that we managed to get some visitors in, at all, for the grouse this year,” said Alex Hogg, chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
Last month estate owners hit back over grouse shooting being allowed under new Covid-19 restrictions saying "thousands" of jobs were at risk.
A furious row erupted over the exemption of grouse shoots from coronavirus public health rules limiting gatherings to six people.
Outdoor activities, including shooting, were permitted provided they are organised, licensed and physical distancing rules are adhered to.
However, most other indoor and outdoor gatherings were restricted at the time.
In Scotland, shoots are permitted provided guidance and laws to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are followed.
The safe participation in country sports is vital to helping the rural economy recover, said landowners' group Scottish Land and Estates.
It said country sports have been unfairly singled out "by a vocal few" as an activity that should not be allowed to take place during Covid restrictions.
But Scottish charity OneKind said wildlife had "thrived" during the lockdown, but was now being "shot for fun".
OneKind said it was "deeply disappointed" by the exemption.
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association said grouse shooting supported 2640 full-time jobs in Scotland, with 8800 people employed in different roles in total.
It said a "significant proportion" of the jobs were in remote areas, adding that holding no shoots at all this year would have led to overall loses of £8.5 million across 32 estates.
