Scottish Hospitality Group said that staff at its venues had to turn away 550 guests without vaccine passports last week. The staff were subjected to abusive treatment from visitors and venues were forced to close early due to a 40% drop in visitors.
“The Scottish Hotels Group has been warning the Government for weeks that its vaccine passport scheme is not ready, but the Government wants to go ahead, even if it doesn’t provide a safe support system for businesses and their employees,” said Stephen Montgomery, a spokesman for the Scottish Hotels Group.
"The use of vaccine passports will reduce people's interest in our services that are open at night."
Mr Montgomery also rejected the argument that the number of people being turned away was a sign that the program was working effectively in preventing unvaccinated people from traveling to high-risk locations.
Under the program, people going to places with crowded activities or events will have to prove that they have had two doses of vaccine. - Photo: Internet
Not only did the plan face opposition from many service providers, it also received no support from the Scottish Conservatives, who said it was "both impossible and unreasonable" when the Government did not provide financial support to businesses and did not ensure the safety of service workers. Covid-19 Recovery Department spokesman Murdo Fraser said: "The most worrying thing is the abuse that hotel service workers have to endure, from the public and from an annoying, unreliable app."
On the contrary, the Scottish Government still believes that implementing a vaccine passport program is a useful measure, contributing to encouraging more people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, thereby ensuring that services can be open all night, and crowded places can still operate normally when winter - the favorable time for the Covid-19 virus to spread - is approaching.
According to the plan, the vaccine passport program was introduced by the Scottish Government on October 1, however due to technical issues with the new vaccine certification application, the program was delayed by 17 days and officially took effect from October 18.
