On Wednesday, first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a multi-million pound support package for business impacted by the surge in cases of Covid-19, which included a £3 million allocation for Scottish tourism companies.

But, SPAA president Joanne Dooey said: "What is the point of supporting Scottish tourism businesses with £3 million of business support if the travel industry, which brings them all here, has been decimated through lack of support?

"What seems to be consistently overlooked is that without outbound travel there is no inbound tourism." 

She claimed that the travel industry in Scotland "seems, once again, to have been wholly ignored" by the business support package.

"Scottish travel professionals are wholly at a loss to understand why we seem to be the Cinderella sector of business support," she continued.

"Travel agents have faced highly restricted trading – with many reporting trading at less than 10% of pre-pandemic rates in our members’ survey – with minimal support.

"Travel agencies have been forced to remain open to handle refunds, rebookings and repatriations. Most have had little revenue since March 2020.We urgently need sector specific support."

Dooey, who further claimed that outbound travel is worth £1.5 billion to the Scottish economy, said that if the country is unable to retain air routes, which have reportedly taken "decades" to develop, then Scotland will also lose its "valuable inbound visitors and the benefits they bring to the economy".