Juntos con la Hostelería Industry (Platform formed by FIAB, AECOC and HOSTELERÍA DE ESPAÑA), it has expressed its total opposition to the document with new restrictions for the hospitality sector and qualifies them as “criminalizing restrictive measures”.
The platform has explained through a press release that the Ministry of Health is working on updating the document on coordinated response actions, known as the "Health traffic light", and presents tougher measures for the hospitality sector.
Along these lines, it includes the activation of the “high” risk when the incidence is between 150 and 250 cases, which will result in the mandatory closure of the interior areas of the establishments. It should be noted that the previous version left the approval of this measure in the hands of the autonomous communities.
Juntos con la Hostelería Industry, they have confirmed that on March 9, they sent a letter to the President of the Government, which included the "concern about blaming the hospitality industry in the transmission of Covid-19" positioning this sector "in the center of all restrictions and as the only solution to contain the pandemic”.
We must emphasize that this letter has not received a response and argued that the agri-food industry and the hospitality industry are strategic in the country's economy, where it accounts for 11.6% of GDP and employs 2.7 million people, figures that in 2020 they fell to 5.8% in the case of GDP and with more than one million workers affected. The destruction of employment, with 9 out of 10 jobs destroyed since February of last year corresponding to the hotel and tourism industry, is one of the fundamental consequences of the continuous restrictions that have been put in place in these months.
The Platform has based its arguments on the experience of other countries in Europe and highlights that countries with a total closure of the hospitality industry are currently experiencing an accumulated incidence in the last 14 days much higher than that registered in Spain. This is the case of countries such as France, Belgium, or Germany, which have 545, 438 and 207 respectively, compared to 132 cases in Spain. These data show that the closure of the hospitality industry is not the solution.
On the other hand, Juntos con la Hostelería Industry reiterates that its objective always is to achieve the necessary combination that allows promoting the recovery of the sector without renouncing control of the pandemic, through the implementation of consensual measures.
Likewise, it insists that the blame of the sector does not correspond to the data of the Ministry of Health when they show that the evolution curves of the CCAA pandemic are similar with very different measures. In this way, it can be inferred that there is no pattern in the relationship between restrictive measures in the hospitality industry and the evolution of health data.
Juntos con la Hostelería Industry reports that, in the letter sent to the President of the Government, it has expressed its concern about the fact that tightening the limitations in the hospitality industry can promote social encounters in other uncontrolled areas.
According to the Ministry of Health's own data, in Report No. 265 corresponding to December 4th (the last one that includes information by economic activities), 2.33% of the infections occurred in bar or restaurants, compared to transmission in social gatherings, that continued to increase, being the focus in 15.3% of cases.
The hospitality sector must be an ally in the fight against the pandemic, and we must highlight that urgently needs the direct aid that has been launched, considering that has already suffered the definitive closure of 100,000 establishments.
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