Presumably, at the end of Holy Week, which will begin this Sunday, but will reach the whirlwind of festivity from Thursday, there are hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes hanging right off the mark. There will even be those who have to apologize to their customers for not being able to serve them dinner when they are full. This is what happens on bridges and holidays accompanied by weather in any corner of the Costa Blanca.
Lively beaches, busy streets and terraces with a pre-summer atmosphere and a total turnover of tens of millions of euros Is the crisis over? No. Sure, we are in for very good days, but the industry that supports 300,000 jobs needs more or less normal activity 365 days a year. And we still have a long way to go, and we have to reach the long-awaited next summer, a season that businessmen and experts have envisioned and dreamed of. Putin or covid don’t ruin it again. I insist, there are still three months and the rest of the Costa Blanca, with the exception of perhaps Benidorm, must climb its Calvary in May and June, but the days ahead this week may make us think that a nightmare awaits. finished.
For this reason, it is not understood that the Government, whose mouth is full while explaining the figures and data on tourism and its importance, has once again forgotten to support the sector in the face of the social fire that has occurred in the past days. Increase in Spanish prices. Once again, no direct aid, no tax exemptions, no VAT, no winking or anything. Something like Madrid must think it is not necessary to support tourism because we are talking about a self-sufficient sector. No, accounts keep popping up and the drift is dangerous. Neither a hotel can withstand a weekend tourist only, nor a bar serving breakfast from 9-11am. And worst of all, many others who are part of the chain depend on this activity.
The economic crisis resulting from the Covid pandemic has caused the tourism sector to accumulate losses of 10,000 million euros, representing 70% of activity in the province of Alicante, after two very difficult years. Trying to recover and catch up with the cruise rhythm for several months. A reduction in the tourism business, which has a direct impact on the state’s GDP. Of the 12,800 million that contributed to the 35,000 million GDP, tourism contributed only 3,600 million in 2020, a loss of 9,200 million causing the state’s Gross Domestic Product to drop to 25,800 million euros, or the same thing, 26% less.
There are hotels that have been in operation since this weekend, which have not opened since October 2019 when they closed at the end of the season, and then were surprised by the covid crisis and the general closure that they couldn’t even get out of last summer. But today, Palm Sunday, they contrast Holy Week with anticipation, looking up at the sky, and equalizing, because no one believes that on Easter someone will hit a “field” and even if it comes close, the box. it will be to face what happened, what is left, and endure until summer. Leyre BilbaoThe manager of Visit Benidorm remembered this week: this is business 365 days a year, not ball.
A road that has been complicated by the instability caused by the war in Ukraine and must be traveled without approved direct assistance for industry and transport (not all transport. Railway workers have complaints). President this week Ximo Puig has taken a step further by reducing many autonomous taxes by 10%. A commendable undertaking, but not enough without Government cooperation.
It’s a bit tiring to repeat this, but in Madrid you always look the other way. Otherwise, from a bureaucratic point of view, things get so complicated that tourism companies, like most Next Generation funds, are vetoed for tourism and left out of distribution or abandoned.
So far in crisis, since March 2020 British tourists’ planes have reversed mid-flight due to covid closed tourism, around 30 million euros approved by Consell, 18 million on account of the regional secretary’s budget They’re just a band-aid that sees how that part of you bleeds.
I will explain to you. Hotels, even when they were closed, incurred fixed costs of between 30,000 and 135,000 euros per month, which are amortized because if the employer has to pay a loan or rent it is simply impossible to bear. As much as it gained in 2019, nearly empty 2020 left reserves at zero, and 2021 wasn’t by far the year of the recovery that didn’t start in 2022.
The same is true for the rest of the tourism chain: hostels, hostels, bars, cafes, travel agencies or so-called supplemental offerings. Loans are very good and payable when there is activity, but who can face a monthly fee when not even a single euro has been entered right now?
Tourism and accommodation are two capital sectors for the state of Alicante that have seen their revenues fall between 70% and 90%. Only those sectors that are not directly affiliated with employees. Also, bakeries, laundries, elevators, locksmiths… All kinds of shops (everything is tourism) where no gesture is made beyond ERTE have also come to an end. Summer is far away and tourism is sadly still “Cinderella” a story played by the province. And not everything is fixed by halving the prices of TRAM travel coupons or rubbing your hand with boxes that can be made this week.
Note: By the way, volume is not always synonymous with profitability, and especially in the current situation where many companies are happy with a bond and continue to leave their doors open. However, a good Easter is expected. Green shoots in spring.