It would be madness to allow people to visit the Outer Hebrides this year - Donald Macsween

I give visitors a taste of what crofting is like in the Isle of Lewis. I started getting cruise ship visitors coming to my croft in Ness last year and had some bookings for the summer of this year.

Donald Macsween set up a croft tourism business at Ness, on the Isle of Lewis.

Some of these have already been cancelled and I expect the same to happen with the other ones.

I’ve already written off this year’s income from tourism and will not accept any bookings, even if they were permitted.

I think it would be madness to accept visitors into the islands, which could potentially undo the work of the lockdown.

It’s not even the interactions with me, as a tourism operator, that concern me.

Visitors would have to travel by boat or plane, opening up the risk to the wider community.

That’s a risk I am not willing to take and would actively discourage.

We have to live and work in these communities and anyone seen to be risking the lives of their friends and neighbours, for their own short-term financial gain, would have to live with the consequences.

I would hope that both the Scottish and UK governments would continue to support rural and island economies.

Many islands do not have the infrastructure to cope with outbreaks.

Even from a financial point of view, supporting island communities could be more cost effective than having to deal with outbreaks.

We have already seen the army deployed in the Isle of Skye and also military aircraft used to ferry passengers from islands to mainland hospitals in Scotland.

The islands will be open and welcoming again soon, just not in 2020.

Donald Macsween runs Air An Lot (Gaelic for One the Croft), a traditional working croft in Ness, on the north end of the Isle of Lewis.