COVID19
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15 September 2021
Q2 2021 turnover statistics show return to activity but no definitive recovery for hospitality sector
Indexed turnover and growth rates for the hospitality sector in Q2 2021 by Eurostat leave room for cautious optimism but also show that the sector remains far from achieving full recovery to pre-Covid levels.
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15 September 2021
Lockdown measures eased throughout Europe over the course of summer 2021
As the most restrictive measures affecting the hospitality sector were largely lifted across Europe over the course of summer, most hospitality establishments, with the notable exception of nightclubs, were able to cater for guests both within their premises and on terraces.
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26 May 2021
Interview with Ms. Valentina Superti, Director of tourism and proximity at DG GROW
Valentina Superti is Director at the European Commission DG GROW (Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs), responsible for tourism, textiles, social economy and the digitalisation of industry. Her previous responsibilities include being Director for Single Market and Deputy Head of Cabinet of European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, in charge of Industry, SMEs, Galileo and Copernicus.
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26 May 2021
ISO and CEN publish COVID-19 prevention guidelines for tourism sector
On 19 May 2021, the European Standardisation Organisation (CEN) published a European standardisation deliverable for COVID-19 health and safety protocols in tourism establishments and services, developed at the Commission's initiative. It complements CEN’s endorsement of a safety protocol developed at the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO), which was adopted on the previous day (18 May) and to which HOTREC extensively contributed.
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26 May 2021
European Digital Green Certificate: provisional agreement reached
On 20 May 2021, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement, on the European digital green certificate, which will be called the ‘EU digital Covid Certificate’.
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31 March 2021
European Platform Observatory clearly identifies how OTAs exercise their market dominance
HOTREC notably welcomes the conclusions of the Analytical paper: “Multi-homing: obstacles, opportunities, facilitating factors”. It extensively covers how and why, despite the fact that hotels can ‘multi-home’ on several OTA platforms, the benefits of such multihoming are limited for hotels, exposing the many ways in which OTAs exert their market power over hoteliers, including imposing price parity clauses and only sharing limited data with hotels about guests.
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31 March 2021
Hospitality statistics in Q4 2020 show huge impact of Covid-19 “second wave”
Recent statistics published by Eurostat for turnover for accommodation and food service activities in Q4 2020 show the drastic impact of COVID-19 induced measures restricting tourism and the opening of hospitality establishments.
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31 March 2021
EU strategy for sustainable tourism: European Parliament calls for reduced VAT and stimulus package for tourism SMEs
MEPs have called on the European Commission “to encourage Member States to temporarily set reduced VAT rates on travel and tourism services, accompanied by a special stimulus package for all micro enterprises and SMEs for the 2020-2024 period, in order to minimise the number of bankruptcies and preserve jobs and workers’ rights in the European tourism industry, while utilising investments to foster the transition towards a more digital and sustainable tourism ecosystem” in a Parliamentary Resolution adopted on 25 March.
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31 March 2021
State Aid temporary Framework extended!
On 28 January 2021, the European Commission announced the following changes with regard to the State aid Temporary Framework.
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31 March 2021
European Commission proposes Digital Green Certificate
On 17 March 2021, the European Commission presented its proposal to create a Digital Green Certificate to facilitate the safe free movement of citizens within the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021/0068 (COD). The text needs to be approved both by the European Parliament and the Council.