Last year, a good 2 billion euros in aid flowed into the hotel and catering industry, 4.2 billion euros since the beginning of the crisis. “Last year, more than 37,000 companies were supported and more than 400,000 jobs were secured,” says Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP). Around 37,000 companies were supported. On average, 32,000 euros went to catering companies and 60,000 euros to hotel companies.
The most important instrument in 2021 was the failure bonus, which has so far provided a total funding of more than 1.3 billion Aid will be extended and adjusted beyond the end of March if necessary, the politician recently announced.
“For companies that need more liquidity due to being particularly affected and corresponding losses, there is compensation for losses with a maximum sum of 12 million euros,” says Köstinger. “In addition, there are special measures such as the protective shield for the tour operator industry or insolvency protection for travel agencies.”
Private room landlords have also been a major concern since the beginning of the crisis. A total of around 72 million euros have been paid out to this industry so far. “With these grants we have found a good solution to be able to support and maintain small, private accommodation establishments. On January 17th, the application will start for the hardship fund for agricultural and forestry companies and private room landlords,” said the politician.
Regarding the lack of employees in the catering and hotel industry, which was already a problem before Corona and was exacerbated by the pandemic, Köstinger believes that the planned labor market reform should also remedy this. There is a lack of specialists and assistants, who are currently not fully available. According to Köstinger, one is in coordination with Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP).
In tourism in particular, measures and framework conditions are needed that motivate employees to work there, said Köstinger. “Due to the pandemic, we are also missing a lot of apprentices. Due to the many lockdowns, a quarter of the companies have stopped hiring apprentices.” Here, too, one coordinates with the Ministry of Labor. The companies should be given the security to train apprentices again – after all, the apprentices are the specialists of tomorrow.
