The 60-day national state of emergency declared by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, in the early hours of August 10, following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, is already causing reactions in the commercial sector, especially restaurants and tourism, which predict that the measure will affect those activities.

This is the case of the Pichincha Restaurant Association (Agrepi), which in a statement “deeply” regretted the decision to impose a state of emergency in all of Ecuador.

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“Although we fully understand the need to guarantee peace and order, we believe that this measure does not effectively solve the root of the problem and has a rather negative impact on sectors such as tourism and gastronomy, which have already suffered severely due to the pandemic,” he pointed out. union, who reminded that throughout history the restaurant sector was particularly vulnerable in situations of restrictions and extraordinary measures.

The union called on the authorities to consider more holistic and effective approaches to solving the security crisis, involving civil society and security policy experts. “We are appealing for the protection and reactivation of tourism and gastronomy, which play a vital role in the country’s economy and employment,” added Agrepi and said that they are ready to cooperate in finding solutions that protect both society and the community. .

For Holbach Muñeton, president of the Federation of Tourist Chambers of Ecuador, the situation is worrying not only for tourism, but for the country in general, when talking about the murder of Villavicencio, whose circumstances he took as a reference for his sector.

“They have to protect someone, not protect, why didn’t they protect them, then, if they don’t protect someone they have to protect, what can one sector expect, what can an industry like tourism that is an abandoned expectation,” complained Muñeton. , who stated that they only limited themselves to promotion, but indicated that there were many more edges that had to be taken into account.

Regarding the state of emergency, the leader criticized that it is not known what the plan or strategy is in these 60 days and it is not known what will happen in terms of security, although in tourism he planned to stop the reactivation of the sector.

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He indicated that currently the production of the sector is between 50% and 60%, “we need between 50% and 40% to reach the figure we had in 2019”. Now, with the exceptional situation, the collection projection, according to the leader, will drop to 20% or 15%.

He recalled that before what happened with Villavicencio, the projections of the sector for this holiday were optimistic and it was expected that no event would scare the population. “That’s what happened, today (August 10) cancellations have already started, and the few reservations that there were. People will travel, but not to the extent that they intended to travel, it is an event that was not in Guayaquil, but it is an event that affects the national level, the issue of investment has significantly affected it, what makes this state now is the exception to slow down productivity,” lamented the leader who warned that “the manufacturing sector, in this case tourism, will fail.”

To this, Muñeton added other complaints, such as the lack of credit for the sector. “There is no liquidity, no sales, we are in an unsafe country”, he concluded annoyed.