The hospitality industry believes that the Government's decision to extend the maximum capacity for opening terraces from the initial 30% to 50% will allow some of them to open as of May 11 "even if it is on an experimental basis."
In its initial plan of de-escalation presented on Tuesday, the Executive set a maximum capacity of 30% of the tables on the terrace, a percentage that the sector considered insufficient, because, they reported, no business is profitable to start the activity with so few tables .
The Government has decided to expand this capacity, something that the sector considers positive. "It is a sign that we have been heard. Now a dialogue point is established so that the measures to start the activity are shared and viable for the sector, " says Emilio Gallego, general secretary of Hospitality in Spain.
The associations of the sector believe that, within this plan to restart activity, the focus should not be on capacity, but "on sanitary measures that guarantee safety." They argue that there are terraces and establishments "with a lot of space and few tables" and believe that these are in a position to start operating without the need to limit their capacity.
Little opening in phase 0
"Focusing on capacity is reductionist," says Gallego, who believes, however, that with the modification of this measure, " now there will be terraces that can be opened, with that 50% capacity, even if it is experimental."
He believes that they will be on all the largest terraces, those that are on the boulevards of large cities, or on wide avenues, and that have up to 60 tables , which can be opened from the 11th.
Starting tomorrow, the establishments that wish to do so may open but only for take-away, take-out service. In this quarantine period, only delivery, the home delivery service, was allowed. Starting tomorrow, customers can also go personally to the establishment for the dishes.
Little delivery
According to Hospitality in Spain, only between 2% and 3% of businesses have chosen to make food for home delivery in these seven weeks. Some businesses have chosen to stay open and provide this service, through Glovo or Deliveroo, although they are the least in Spain There are more than 300,000 hospitality establishments (cafes, bars, restaurants ...), and almost half are independent businesses.
They also believe that from tomorrow there will be few who open to give take away service. "Some will try to test. As we are in a strange situation, some will try, although it is a format little used by most establishments," he says.
Tomorrow, Monday, the main associations in the sector will meet by videoconference with the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism , Reyes Maroto, to assess how this return to activity can be carried out.
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