A north-east coach operator has warned his family-run firm could face closure “within weeks” without support to help it through the coronavirus shutdown.
Maynes Coaches, which has bases in Buckie, Elgin and Orkney, has run tours for locals and international visitors for the last 73 years.
However, the current lockdown has wiped £500,000 off the firm’s bookings diary, with cancellations stretching as far as December.
Operations director Kevin Mayne believes the ramifications of a sector-wide collapse could decimate the region’s tourism industry without vehicles to show visitors the sites – warning that cruise ships and package holiday operators may choose to go elsewhere without access to coaches.
The businessman said the industry had been supported by its temporary re-classification as a leisure sector to give it access to business rates relief.
But Mr Mayne warned the £25,000 grant he received from the move would be gone within days amid weekly £60,000 bills, which include insurance and finance payments, for the 43-vehicle fleet that is now predominantly dormant.
He said: “The collapse of the industry would decimate the economy of towns that are dependent on tourists and coach groups.
“Coaches are the most effective method of bringing tourists to these areas.
“If the average coach carries 49 passengers and each spends £20 per day, then that’s £4,900 spent in communities over five days.
“Once you include hotel accommodation, it’s more than £13,000.
“The pandemic has put many industries under severe strain, but there are few sectors being hit harder.
“This is primarily due to our industry being seasonal in nature, with high tourism levels in the summer to ease the quieter winter season.”
Jobs being undertaken by frontline Maynes Coaches staff during the lockdown have included repatriating offshore workers arriving by ship in the south of England back to the north-east as well as providing transport for food production staff.
The firm also has two-vehicles on a 24-hour stand-by for the NHS to assist with the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Mayne added: “Once the furlough scheme has ended –and it will at some point – drivers will be laid off all over the country because nobody will have any bookings to pay them.”
The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) and the ABTA travel trade association are jointly campaigning for cancellation rules to be relaxed to allow credit to be offered while extending the 14-day limit for guaranteed refunds.
Graham Vidler, chief executive of the CPT, said: “If we want to bring tourists back into our local areas, get people back in our theatres, shops, restaurants, cafes and bars, not to mention get people back to school and work, it is vital that coach businesses have the financial support to withstand the current crisis.”
The Scottish Government has said it will “continue to listen to and engage with the sector” about support.
A spokeswoman added: “We are determined to help keep companies in business and have offered a package of support worth £2.3billion.
“This includes 1.6% rates relief for all non-domestic properties and 100% relief for properties in the retail, hospitality, leisure and airport sectors in 2020-21.
“Our support for business now exceeds the business support consequentials passed on from the UK Government and actively works to fill the gaps in the UK scheme.
“The new package of measures announced last week extends the small business grant and the £25,000 retail, hospitality and leisure grant scheme in response to feedback from business.”