The general assembly of Federalberghi, meeting today in an extraordinary session, approved a petition addressed to the Government to urgently intervene to protect tourism businesses and workers “before it is too late”.
After underlining the importance that tourism has for the Italian economy, Bernabo Boccapresident of Federalberghi, recalls the devastating damage suffered by accommodation and spa facilities due to the pandemic, with a loss of tourist flows and turnover of more than 50%, which, in some locations, reaches up to 80%listing the main interventions requested by hoteliers:
recognition of effective refreshmentswhich restore equity for the year 2020 and accompany businesses in the months to come, interventions on liquidity (extension of mortgage installments and granting of twenty-year loans), exemption for 2021 from paying taxes (IMU, TARI and RAI license fee)support for rented businesses for the payment of the rent, reduction of the VAT rate to 5% similar to what happened in other European countries, social security contributions relief for businesses that call staff back into service and income support for workers who remain unemployed or suspended.
Bocca also highlights the need to put pressure on the European Commission to request the updating of community provisions governing state aid to support the economy during the pandemic (so-called “temporary framework”), in order to increase the intensity of the aid that can be provided to each company and to extend the period of applicability, which in the absence of an extension will end on 30 June 2021.
This is Giuseppe’s comment Gagliano, president of Confcommercio Federalberghi Salerno: “The requests made by the federation, which spends itself incessantly to exercise its trade union role, contain a complex set of interventions necessary to allow, first of all, the survival of hotel businesses and, consequently, give respite to the sector’s employees.
In a provincial reality like ours, where the incidence of workers in tourism businesses is very high, the last 12 months have seen only short periods of work carried out. This causes inevitable stalls in consumption, with further serious damage to all economic activities in the province of Salerno, which have already paid for the absence of visitors in recent seasons. Promoting the recovery of tourism, we are sure, will boost the entire national and territorial economy”.
