Romania is the EU country with the highest percentage of hospitality employees fired due to the pandemic, president of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR) Calin Ile told a press conference on Thursday.

Ile presented the conclusions of a Cushman & Wakefield survey commissioned by FIHR on the responses of hotel owners in Romania to the crisis caused by the coronavirus, compared to the reactions of European entrepreneurs in the field.

"In the beginning, salary cuts in Romania were lower than those operated by hotel owners in Europe. At this moment, 29 percent of Romania's hospitality employees were fired, and the outlook stands at 38 percent - the highest figure in the countries analyzed. In Hungary, only 19 percent of employees were laid off, and the projection is 20 percent, whereas the percentage of hospitality workers fired all over the EU is 24 percent, and the estimate is 30 percent," said Calin Ile.

The FIHR president underscored that, according to the results of the survey, the current priority of Romanian hotel owners is to ensure a safe environment from the health point of view for employees and customers.

"The hotel owners' priorities in the context of the crisis: the most important is preparing hotels to be safe for employees and customers. That's the response of the Romanian hotel owners. So these allegations that we are not interested in complying with the rules is just press baloney. Our second priority is the management of bookings, cancellations and new bookings. An the third: cash flow management. Reconsidering the number of employees is on the fourth position," said Calin Ile.

The representative of the industry's associations pointed out that almost half of Romania's hotel owners will be forced to close their units if the health situation stays the same in August.

"Since the end of March, 100 percent of the Romanian hotels have felt the impact of the crisis, and 75 percent have closed their doors. 73 percent have now reopened business, 23 percent are still closed, but they all plan to reopen until the end of August. 48 percent of the Romanian hotel owners cannot last more than August. Beyond August, they will be in the red and will have great difficulty in paying salaries, rents or other budget liabilities. And if the crisis continues in the same conditions, only 7 percent of hotel owners will last until March 2021, ie for a period of 12 months from the onset of the crisis," said Calin Ile.

The president of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation said that Romanian hotel owners are financially 10 percent more affected by the health crisis compared to their peers in the EU.

"What is interesting to see is that 39 percent of the respondents in the EU say that they are at the limit of financial sustainability, whereas in Romania this percentage is 48 percent. So we are by about 10 percent more affected than the rest of Europe. Everyone is at loss, the hotels that manage to withstand at zero or that record surplus are exceptions. 84 percent of the Romanian hotel owners report having reduced their operating expenses, while in Europe 92 percent of the business owners have done so. 80 percent of the Romanian hotel owners have used the state aid to support their manpower, 55 percent have blocked any kind of employment, and 45 percent have reduced working hours," Calin Ile said. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Coman, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author/editor: Simona Klodnischi)