The world of hospitality from the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland to the nightclubs of Moscow are closed, Covid-19 respects no boundaries or borders.
After Disneyland president Ken Potrock announced on Monday that all three Disneyland hotels in California have closed, and stopped taking room bookings until January 2021, he thankfully also announced a new round of furloughs.
On the same day, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced measures limiting hours at Moscow’s nightclubs, bars and restaurants until February 2021 starting this Friday.
The new restrictions were imposed after Moscow reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases, and Russia reporting more than 20,000 new infections for five consecutive days.
Sobyanin warned Moscovites: “Unfortunately, we can expect the situation to deteriorate further in the coming weeks.”
The world view of how hospitality has been impacted by Covid-19 can be expanded to cite similar realisations confirming, that irrespective of geographic location or political persuasion stringent measures are needed to combat a mortal foe.
The realisation that the spread of the virus cannot be controlled without safety measures restricting the movement of people is growing globally.
At the same time, the realisation that economies are at risk of being set back on a scale and scope not seen in decades warrant both financial and fiscal intervention.
This requirement is now of paramount importance in the UK. Countless recent failures of robust hospitality businesses have been seen that are due to one issue alone, and beyond the control of owners and shareholders, Covid-19.
The intervention by government to date has saved many businesses, and despite record job losses announced this week, have saved millions of jobs too.
But, without continued and even more substantial intervention to sustain hospitality, more casualties are inevitable.
So, H&C News implores the government to further help a vital component of life in the UK, the hospitality industry.
That help is also needed immediately, the delay in maintaining the furlough scheme further negatively impacted the economy, and almost immediately its resurrection had the reverse effect.
The billions applied to limit damage will go to waste unless more are applied. Costly policy, but the alternative would cost enormously more.
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Hospitality & Catering News: hospitality intervention policy UK – 11 November 2020 – hospitality intervention policy UK.
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