Date Published: 05/02/2021
ARCHIVED - 85,000 bars and restaurants in Spain have been permanently closed by the pandemic
ARCHIVED ARTICLE ![<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - 85,000 bars and restaurants in Spain have been permanently closed by the pandemic](https://murciatoday.com/images/articles/21/02/1557230__11612517752_large.jpg)
Lost revenue of 70 billion euros reported last year as 300,000 people lost their jobs
With the data related to the devastating third wave of the coronavirus in Spain only just beginning to show signs of falling, one of the worst-affected areas of the national economy continues to be the hospitality sector, and figures reported this week by Emilio Gallego, general secretary of the Hostelería de España association, paint a very grim picture indeed.
Sr Gallego reports that lost revenue in the sector during 2020 amounted to approximately 70,000 million euros in comparison with the year before, and that the pandemic has so far been instrumental in the permanent closure of around 85,000 bars and restaurants. It is also estimated that some 300,000 people have been made redundant in the sector while a further 360,000 are currently on ERTE furlough schemes, which were recently prolonged until the end of May.
In 2018 the government’s central statistics unit reported that there were just over 277,000 bars and restaurants in Spain, and unless that figure had altered dramatically by the time the pandemic forced measures to be taken last spring Sr Gallego’s figure of 85,000 closures equates to approximately 30 per cent of them having been lost.
The impact of Covid-19 is also illustrated in statements made by Jacobo Olalla, the leader of brewers’ association Cerveceros de España. In “normal” conditions 70 per cent of all beer consumed in Spain is served in bars and restaurants, and their closure has had a serious effects on demand and, therefore, on production, he says.
Sr Olalla describes the current situation of major breweries as “terrible” with their main customers either closed or severely limited in the ways in which they can operate, and adds that the resulting increase in drinking beer at home is not enough to compensate for the business lost.
He also adds his voice to those calling for more aid to be offered to hostelries, claiming that while bars and restaurants have been closed in many countries in Europe, elsewhere more compensation for forced closures is available. When a decision of this nature is imposed by the government or other authorities, he argues, they should pay for the damage caused to the businesses affected.
While welcoming the prolongation of the ERTE schemes until the end of May, Sr Olalla also warns that he believes that a further extension of the furlough programs may be needed if more redundancies and closures in the sector are to be avoided.
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