It is feared private coach travel may not return to Scotland until 2021, spelling potential disaster for rural businesses reliant on tourist groups.
Travel operators have already found the bulk of their upcoming bookings cancelled, with the prospect of any peak-season earnings vanishing quickly.
And with social distancing measures likely to limit passenger numbers on any vehicle when the industry does resume, the road to recovery may be fraught.
Kevin Maynes, operations director of Maynes Coaches in Buckie, said: “With social distancing, we can only get 13 people on a 53-seater coach.
“No-one is going to hire that. It just won’t be viable.
“If the distance between us reduces from two metres to one, we’ll maybe get 25 passengers – and eventually back to normal.
“Even then, most of the folk who go on coach tours are over 50 or elderly and might not want to get on board. How do you show them it is safe?
“We need to get back their confidence in the industry. We will be doing everything we can.”
Last year, shops in Inverness took in £3 million solely from coach passengers, with similar scenarios in towns and cities across the north of Scotland.
But if holidaymakers choose to go it alone and set their own route, Mr Maynes says both parties will miss out.
“The availability of coaches is probably the main cog in a group coming to the north of Scotland,” he said.
“They’ll come over in groups and want to go from place to place – and this includes areas they might not be able to get to otherwise.
“It’s not a case of coming off a cruise ship and heading straight to Loch Ness.
“We have all the stops between the main attractions and these places are majorly dependent on a coach coming through.”
The coach industry employs around 42,000 people across the UK, including “irreplaceable” highly-skilled drivers.
But hundreds of vehicles have already been repossessed by finance firms, with operators losing thousands of pounds every week maintaining coaches no-one can use.
Mr Maynes says further losses could affect other avenues, such as the availability of school buses, and is part of a steering group calling for further government support.
He said: “The coach industry brings in a phenomenal amount of money and, right now, this has gone from 100% to nothing.
“I’ve always known this industry to be busy and it’s really strange to be so quiet just now.
“But it is very adaptable and we can jump onto anything new quickly. We just need that green light.”
