The imminent curfew from 0 to 6 hours announced yesterday by the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, to stop the advance of the coronavirus in the Valencian Community has not been well received by some associations in the hospitality sector. Despite the fact that the social agents (the unions and the employers) gave their approval 24 hours ago to a measure that did not seem too invasive with the economic activity, the Hospitality Coordinator of the Barrios de Valencia has expressed its opposition to an action restrictive of autonomous application due to its high cost for the sector.
In fact, the Coordinator has already made the first calculations of the cost of the curfew in the city of Valencia and, by extension, in the rest of the Valencian Community. In his opinion, the night confinement will have an impact of one million euros a day only in the autonomous capital and 5.5 in the three provinces.
These figures, stated from the Coordinator in a statement, represent a setback for SMEs in the hotel business, since the pandemic has already caused a decrease in billing of over 50% compared to the figures they handled in 2019.
According to data compiled by the group, for every hour less of activity the average is left to enter an average of 160 euros per day depending on the type of premises and the areas in which it is located. In this regard, they emphasize that it must be taken into account that closing at 00.00 means that half an hour before, at least, the eviction of customers and the collection of chairs and tables from terraces begins.
“In this context, and taking into account that family and friends gatherings are the ones that cause the most sources of contagion, and that, foreseeably, they will multiply, as an alternative to curfew restrictions, it does not seem that applying new restrictions to the activity of public establishments, which carry out their activity with all kinds of preventive measures, may contribute to reducing contagion figures, “they say in their statement.
Furthermore, the Coordinator emphasizes that nightlife venues are the most affected by the pandemic due to the “chain” of closures decreed by the Generalitat. “They are in a dramatic situation and, therefore, we consider it essential that they recover their activity as soon as possible during the daytime and providing hospitality services to avoid their final ruin,” they indicate. In other words, they can make up for their losses by converting themselves into bars.
To avoid the final ruin of the sector, from the group they insist that the sector needs a “real rescue plan”, which includes direct aid and incentives similar to those that have been launched for other sectors, such as the tourist bonus launched ago a few days. “The money must reach all the business fabric most vulnerable and affected by the crisis,” they remarked from the Coordinator.
On the other hand, the association of associations of the hotel industry of Valencia, maintains that “the legal measures of the Consell generate perplexity among SMEs and workers in the sector, since” we see how measures are accumulated without control or capacity to evaluate them , which make us less and less confident in its effectiveness “.
They are more restrained in the Hospitality Business Federation, where they have not yet made an estimate of the cost that the curfew could imply in the sector. In any case, sources from the Federation considered that night confinement is a “preventive measure to stop the negative evolution of the pandemic as long as it is adjusted to a time horizon and with the priority objective of avoiding the closure of the hospitality activity “.
“We consider that, as has happened in other autonomous communities, the measure of the closure of the hotel is totally unfair, disproportionate and lacking in any rigor, taking into account the low percentage of infections (3.5% according to a recent study by COMPETUR) that they originate in the hotel business, “continued the same sources.
In this sense, they indicated that the application of the curfew would suppose “a further cut in the hours of the hospitality activities that will have a direct impact on the dinner service and that, most likely, will cause immediate cancellation of reservations or even the impossibility of holding events such as weddings already planned in the current current schedule “.
The Federation also vindicated the situation that the leisure subsector is experiencing with businesses closed for months and urged a solution and a rescue plan and direct aid to entrepreneurs and freelancers who are in this situation.
Finally, they reiterated that the hospitality industry “is a responsible sector, which has invested in the application of protocols and virus prevention measures, in informative posters, awareness campaigns and training of workers and in which some prevention measures, contrary to what happens in the private sphere where the measures are relaxed “.
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