Hotel chairwoman Kraus-Winkler: “Can't wait for the vaccination”
The Chamber of Commerce is pushing for hotels in Austria to be opened. “We can no longer wait for the vaccination coverage, we need a feasible way of being able to keep our operations open – despite the coronavirus”, said Susanne Kraus-Winkler, chairwoman of the hotel industry association. Tests for guests prior to arrival and weekly tests for employees are designed to ensure that the industry is no longer affected by the lockdowns.
It is important for Kraus-Winkler, however, that the responsibility for the tests lies with the guests and not with the hotelier. “In the next step, we would like to work with the responsible ministries to work out a practicable implementation of the test strategy,” said the industry representative. The trade association has submitted a corresponding concept to the government.
End of the ping pong game
In addition to the reopening, the interest group also calls for “the factories to be kept open permanently”. “Because constantly postponed opening dates or permanent locking and unlocking are not sustainable in the long term, neither for employees nor for guests and suppliers, but above all for the accommodation providers themselves,” the hotel trade association emphasized its point of view.
“We can neither afford another lockdown nor a constant ping-pong game to reopen,” warns Kraus-Winkler. “Many companies are running out of air.”
For the time being, however, there is no improvement in sight for tourism. In Germany, where many holidaymakers come from, it was decided on Tuesday to limit the range of motion to 15 kilometers around the place of residence in counties with a high incidence.
The coronavirus pandemic has almost brought tourism worldwide to a standstill since March last year. The Austrian hotel industry was hit hard by the multiple lockdowns that lasted for months. The government put together several aid packages for the branch that is important for Austria's economy.
