Foreign
THE German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) warned on Friday that the hospitality sector still struggling and yet to recover from losses since the COVID-19 regulations.
The organisation warned that soaring energy bills, fewer customers, and the threat of new COVID-19 regulations in the coming winter threaten to plunge the sector into a third straight year of losses.
According to the German statistics agency, June was the first month in which hospitality reached pre-pandemic turnover levels again.
Even accounting for seasonal effects, nominal turnover was 0.1 per cent higher in June than in February 2020, the last full month before COVID-19 restrictions began.
However, if increased prices for consumers are taken out of the equation, the turnover in the first half of 2022 was 22.1 per cent below that of the first half of 2019.
This is an indication that fewer customers are turning up at restaurants, bars and hotels, DEHOGA said.
The president of DEHOGA, Guido Zöllick, called on the government to cap energy prices and to keep sales tax on food sold in restaurants at seven per cent. (dpa/NAN)
Tags: German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA)
