The Spanish domestic holiday market records coronavirus losses of 448 million euros!

 

Tourism is being affected by the COVID-19 crisis. qatar villa

The COVID-19 crisis, together with so many other economic consequences, has taken its toll on the Spanish holiday home market. The Spanish Federation of Housing and Tourist Apartment Associations (FEVITUR) has already registered a loss of EUR 448 million and it estimates that this figure will amount to EUR 2.9 billion by late 2020. Indeed, for the Easter period alone the Federation estimates the impact of 188 million euros, typically one of Spain's most busy tourist weeks. 

FEVITUR believes that half the season will be lost, but expects an incremental start to activity which will enable business to resume operations in June with an influx of reserves over the last quarter of the year and marks the beginning of a recovery for 2021.

An improvement which, as Tolo Gomila, President of FEVITUR, said, "will to a large extent be conditioned by a resumption of the issuing markets, a recovery of trust and the economic recovery."

In this context FEVITUR has communicated to the government a package of urgent measures to support the sector and to mitigate the negative effects of this crisis. These included the temporary moratory on charges for local tourists for 2020, the postponement of the payments to social security and tax agencies and the postponement of provisional or indirect taxes without surcharges or interest, acceleration of files on temporary employment regulation due to force majeure and allowances for the Spanish Autonomous Communities.

In recent years, the sector of tourist housing has grown exponentially, making it a key and valuable player in tourism and the Spanish economy. "With the action taken by several associations that provide free shelter for health workers, the military and other sectors, our sector has been able to make it strategic for the Spanish economy in offering lodgings in the value chain of tourists, responsible for their contributions to the Spanish GDP, exemplary in fiscal transparency and supporting its country in the current climate.