EHMA President urges European leaders to save tourism

Ezio A. Indiani, President of the largest and most important European association of luxury hotel managers, together with the National Delegates, wrote directly to the Heads of Governments and the European Parliament an appeal to save tourism.

President of the European Hotel Managers Association (EHMA) has felt the unstoppable impulse to appeal to governments and European institutions in the face of the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought the entire tourism sector to its knees, a segment that generates more than 13% of GDP (direct and indirect), 6% of employment and 30% of EU internal trade.

The letter, which is a real “cry of pain”, was sent to the Presidents of the Parliament and the EU Commission as well as to the European Prime Ministers and Tourism Ministers through the EHMA National Delegates.

“We appealed to governments and institutions to consider the tourism and hospitality industry as an absolute priority and to take aggressive and coordinated actions at local, national and even international level to contain the loss of jobs and the closure of companies in the immediate present and in the long term ”, explains Ezio A. Indiani, President of EHMA and GM Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan.

“We ask for financial and fiscal help to protect employment in all its forms, including seasonal and fixed-term jobs, preventing irreparable damage and giving us the opportunity to gradually reopen the hotels at the end of the COVIS emergency.”

“The recovery will be slow and the hospitality industry urgently needs financing, compensation for lack of profits, cancellation of loan costs and their renegotiation, exemption of rental costs, tax relief and related deferral of payments, funds for psychological support and training for employees ”, continues Indiani.

“Finally, funding is needed to promote tourism and transport to facilitate international travel. There have been many crises in the past, but none so serious.

“Never before in the 46 years of history of this Association since its founding in 1974, the EHMA – European Hotel Managers Association – has felt the need to request institutional aid.

The Association currently counts 421 members in 27 European countries, corresponding to a market share of around 10% of high-level tourism in Europe.

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