At the opening summit on Thursday, companies and experts explain how tourism and leisure companies, culture and the like can open safely.
“Our companies take responsibility and take their own initiative. For the health of Austrians as well as for the economic health of our companies and their employees,” emphasizes Harald Mahrer, President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, at the digital opening summit initiated by the Austrian Economic Chamber. “The experts, who consulted with the companies on Thursday and discussed the existing prevention and security concepts, confirm to us: Safe opening is possible and with access tests we have the key, together with FFP2 masks, security concepts and the increasing number of vaccinations of the hand. “
With the opening summit on Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce is supporting the tourism and event sectors with the clear goal of opening the first openings in March, emphasized the WKÖ President. Around 50 participants from the various sectors of tourism and the leisure industry – gastronomy, leisure businesses, hotel business together with the arts and culture sector – discuss how opening steps can succeed.
➤ The big opening summit: This is how Austria goes up
Around 90,000 businesses are currently affected by the Corona closures, and 675,000 full-time jobs are directly and indirectly dependent on tourism: “With a value added of almost 60 billion euros, tourism and the leisure industry are essential drivers for Austria's economy. The success story of domestic tourism must to be continued after Corona, the companies now need a clear perspective “, emphasizes Robert Seeber, chairman of the tourism and leisure industry in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
It is gratifying that the Austrian model of opening up with nationwide testing is attracting great interest, especially abroad: “Our companies and the population are role models here. Austria now has the unique opportunity to show that we have the tools available in the fight against use the pandemic successfully “, said the WKÖ President.
Both Mahrer and Seeber pointed to the high level of acceptance of entry tests in the population. “81 percent of the people in Austria are in favor of opening gastronomy in March with an entry test. So the people are ready to take part and see the possibilities for a return to everyday life.”
With a test capacity of currently 2.7 million, Austria is test world champion and a model country worldwide. “More tests mean more security. It is clear that this way you can find and filter out more infected people. We create more security and economic freedom at the same time. That benefits us all,” said Mahrer.
For comparison: Austria has increased the number of tests in the last few weeks by 252 percent and tests almost 9 times as many as Bavaria or Switzerland. Due to the large number of tests, asymptomatic patients in particular are recognized more quickly, the number of unreported cases is brought to light and chains of infection are interrupted more quickly.
