After the recent announcement by the Madrid City Council to eliminate the so-called “covid terraces” as of January 1 of next year, the hoteliers have expressed their concern about the possible job loss.
Specifically, the José Luis Martínez-Almeida City Council will remove 2,000 terraces, putting the viability of these 2,000 businesses at risk, according to the predictions of Hostelería Madrid.
The association expresses its concern at the announcement of removing the COVID pedestal terraces and parking strips. They recall the precarious situation that the hotel businesses still maintain, “which are ahead of them two years of recovery and financial recovery to face the ICOs and personal loans to which they have had to resort to overcome the year and a half of pandemic, “they point out.
The terraces are key to the recovery of the hospitality industry after the covid
The disappearance of the 2,000 COVID terraces would also put more than 6,000 jobs at risk. A survey carried out by Hostelería Madrid highlights the strategic importance of the terraces in the recovery of the turnover of the hospitality establishments when the pandemic is overcome.
So much so that, while 16.88% of the premises with a terrace have already recovered between 80% and 90% of your turnover After the end of the State of Alarm and the arrival of good weather, only 5.7% of businesses without a terrace have reached these figures. In fact, most of the establishments without a terrace bill below 40%.
The keys to the recovery of the hospitality industry
From Hostelería Madrid they consider that the sector will not recover its good health until consumption and tourism recover, predictably from the last quarter of 2021. The reality is that more than half of these businesses assure that they do not receive tourists at the moment.
For this reason, the sector needs a series of concrete measures to promote the recovery of its businesses. The self-employed hoteliers from Madrid assure that the key measures, in order of importance, are:
1. Expansion of groups up to 10 people.
2. Recovery of indoor capacity.
3. Grant more terraces.
4. Recovery of outdoor / terrace capacity.
5. Recovery of the bar service.
6. Recovery of activity schedules.
7. Recovery of nightlife activity.
“The nightstand terraces have been, in this pandemic, more important than ever for business and it has been shown that they can have a coexistence with neighborhood life. And the fact is that the importance of the terraces will also be crucial from now on, when we already begin to see signs of recovery, when vaccination is advancing and the population begins to regain a timid normality “, explains Juan José Blardony, director of Hospitality Madrid .
Hospitality will not fully recover until 2023
According to the association’s forecasts, it will not be until 2022 when the hospitality industry begins to function normally on a continuous basis. By then, hoteliers will have to face the payment of debts generated during this pandemic period; either through the payment of direct debts, personal loans or ICOs.
For this reason, Hostelería Madrid believes that the situation of the will not be fully sanitized until autumn 2023. “The hospitality companies are very financially damaged and we need the administrations to continue supporting us in the next two years to be able to clean up our companies and continue contributing to the creation of employment in our society”, concludes Blardony.
