Lourdes (AFP)
Souvenir store, shopping malls and airports, crafts: the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced on Monday the extension to new professions of support measures for the tourism sector.
"We are going to extend the benefits of the devices planned for tourism to a certain number of sectors, I am thinking in particular of souvenir and piety shops", declared the minister during a trip to Lourdes, a traditional place of religious pilgrimages, practically at a standstill due to sanitary measures.
As part of the tourism support plan announced on May 14, souvenir and piety stores, shopping arcade shops, airport shops, translator-interpreters, crafts, auxiliary transport services by water, sports betting and phonographic labels (record companies) will benefit from partial unemployment and the solidarity fund until the end of the year, and exemption from social contributions from March to June for very small businesses and SME, detailed Bercy in a press release.
In Lourdes, added Mr. Le Maire, "the traders we met lost 80, 85% of turnover. For Lourdes, it is 70 to 80% less activity because foreign tourists, the pilgrims, are not there ".
"Here in Lourdes, it's a triple penalty, because we have very international clienteles, which correspond to 62% of overnight stays, often very seasonal, from April to October, and the pilgrims are seniors", added the secretary of State Tourism, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
The Minister Delegate for SMEs Alain Griset also took part in the trip to Lourdes, while the pilgrimage of August 15 looms, the main event of the year for the Marian city.
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