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The Romanian Hotels and Restaurants' Employers Association (HORA) calls for the immediate reopening of indoor restaurants, with the implementation of health safety measures, and removing them from the rule of 3 per thousand population incidence of COVID-19 spread, informs an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, according to AGERPRES.
"Given the losses incurred by this sector and the risk of bankruptcy that threatens more than half of the operators in the field, we urgently request the following measures: 1. Urgent reopening of indoor restaurants, with the implementation of health safety measures. 2. Removing restaurants from under the 3 per 1000 population rule, from the list of activities at risk of spreading COVID-19 and, thus, allowing the smooth functioning, with a set of measures previously agreed with industry representatives and respected by all operators, reads the document.
The letter drafted by the Romanian Hotels and Restaurants' Employers Association is addressed to Prime Minister Florin Citu, Minister of Health Vlad Voiculescu, and Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Claudiu Nasui.
The Romanian Hotels and Restaurants' Employers Association points out that before the COVID-19 crisis, 40,000 companies with 100 pct Romanian capital were active in the HoReCa sector, with a turnover of 5 billion euros, employing approximately 190,000 employees, namely 10 pct of the total number of employees working in the private sector.
"As a result of the crisis due to the pandemic and the restrictive measures imposed by the authorities, our industry is currently the most affected, registering a sharp decline that has led today to a decrease in turnover by about 70 pct in the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period last year, it triggered the suspension of the activity in the case of over 40 pct of the operators," according to the text of the letter published by HORA.
The restaurant employers' organization notes that the contribution of HoReCa to the Gross Domestic Product amounts to approximately 5.07 pct, of which 3.42 pct direct financial impact, 0.91 pct social impact (employee salaries and consumption contribution) and 0.74 pct indirect financial impact (suppliers and investments).
