Representatives of the hospitality sector from all over Tarragona have participated in a virtual meeting to debate and share the future of the hospitality sector after the coronavirus.
Among the various interventions there was consensus in denouncing that the aid offered by the Government is insufficient since, as Francisco Pintado, president of the Association of Hospitality Entrepreneurs of the Province of Tarragona (AEHT), remarked on several occasions, the moratoriums offered by the Administration are not a help, but rather a debt that the establishments will have to assume, although at this time and until the reopening, the level of income of the sector is zero. Another issue raised was a zero VAT requirement for the sector. ICO credits, Pintado said, are not the solution.
In addition, other representatives of the AEHT stated that it is necessary to ask the respective local administrations for the forgiveness of municipal taxes or the expansion of the public spaces available for terraces to compensate for the reduction in the internal capacity that will be imposed once the establishments are reopened.
On the other hand, several restaurateurs openly pronounce against the partitions as a separating element between people and it was even questioned that working with gloves and masks to the extent that these elements discourage attendance at bars and restaurants as they are leisure, relationship spaces , contact and not a surgical space or sanitary setting. Pep Moreno, president of the AEH Salou, asked rhetorically if anyone believes that on a Saturday night a family group will go out to dinner at a restaurant with people separated by partitions and inside which the service is done with gloves and masks.
There is a coincidence that the sanitary, preventive and hygiene conditions of establishments and personnel must be guaranteed at all costs, but gloves, masks and especially partitions are not seen as the solution for a sector that must be able to transmit tranquility and a good environment to attract again the clientele.
In any case, at this point uncertainty is the dominant feeling among the representatives of the different AEH of the demarcation, since the measures that the government will finally adopt are not known, it is not known how the reduction in capacity will affect, as it will have been to do the service, etc. In addition, the diversity and typologies of establishments make the situation even more complicated since an establishment oriented to daily menus is not the same as establishments focused on haute cuisine or small hotel establishments. In any case, and in this there was a coincidence, it will be very difficult to maintain the profitability of the business with substantial capacity limitations since the costs are the same but the income is not.
The virtual meeting was attended by Francisco Pintado, president of the provincial AEHT, Ángel Pérez, representative of the AEH Tarragona city, Raffa Olivier, provincial representative of restoration of the AEHT, Magí Mallorquín, representative of the AEH Alt Camp and representative of Hotels , Joan Bosch, member of the AEHT Council of Experts, Manuel Fernández, president of AEH Torredembarra, Pep Moreno, president of AEH Salou, Xavi Martí, president of AEH Cambrils, Juani Piñana, president of AEH Tierras del Ebro , Josep Ramon Guiu, president of the AEH Conca de Barberà, Eduard Álvarez, president of the Baix Penedès Hospitality Guild, Marta Domènech, representative of the AEH Priorat and Xavi Salvat, president of the AEH Reus.
Despite the uncertainty of the moment, the sector was willing to work in a coordinated way to deal with the situation with the different administrations and, among others, Joan Bosch, with a long history, expressed the conviction that the sector will go ahead and come out of this crisis since, as he himself recalled, this is not the first crisis situation that we face '. In addition, he said that this is the moment when it is necessary to make a "province brand" to jointly project this territory.
Apart from the claims before the administration, some establishments have launched home care services, are preparing to offer a catering service, reinforcing the presence of local products or rethinking possibilities when the misconduct ends, a time when Apart from all these legislative and administrative issues, the key factor will be the response of citizens and tourism, most of which, at least this summer, will be local and the rest of the state.
