Filenews 21 January 2021
Things are getting worse in the hotel industry and more broadly in the tourism industry than we expected and it should already be considered that the first half of 2021 has been permanently lost for the industry.
Mr Michaelides stresses that with the scope and intensity of this second wave of the pandemic pan-European, all the major tour operators abroad have frozen all planning for next summer, with the result that the planned gradual reopening of our hotel industry from March is already being shifted to a later stage.
"We will have to face the reality that in the first half of the new year the situation will be very difficult," he stressed. "Already, this year's winter is proving much more difficult for tourism businesses than last year. This is because last year some companies were able to partially work at the beginning of the pandemic, whereas this year this is not the case.
The situation is very difficult for hotels, since the planning for the summer cannot be promoted immediately. It is typical that the major tour operators have released from the reservations traditionally made by aircraft, since flights are not planned to start immediately, so that they do not have to pay huge rents unnecessarily."
Thanos Michaelides estimated that any news of the 2021 tourism movement will begin when the population vaccination programme becomes massive and will allow the market to move. Until then, he concluded, unfortunately things in the tourism sector will continue at zero levels like in recent months.
