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30% of hotels stopped operating in Arequipa due to protests

30% of hotels stopped operating in Arequipa due to protests

As a result of the demonstrations in the southern regions against the government of Dina Boluarte and Congress, foreign tourists continue to cancel their travel packages to visit the city of Arequipa and other attractions in the region.

According to the president of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Arequipa (Now), Teresa Rubina Valencia Dongo, 30% of the 90 hotels that are registered in the association have temporarily stopped operating indefinitely. The data was obtained after a survey of the owners.

As an immediate effect, they have had to remove the staff that worked in the hotels or, failing that, they have given them early vacations, while the acute political crisis is resolved.

Rubina explained that the cancellations are short, medium and long term. They consider that the first quarter of the year is practically lost and foresee a similar scenario after that period, since they have begun to receive cancellations for July, August and September.

For now, the daily occupancy percentage of the hotels that are operating is less than 10%, when previously it used to be between 35 to 40% at the same time of the year. It should be noted that this season is considered low for the tourism sector.

Rubina indicated that the estimated economic loss amounts to 1 million 600 thousand soles per day, both for the hotel sector and for restaurants.

bankruptcy of companies

A few days ago, the regional manager of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Jorge Meza, stated that Arequipa will also suffer the impact of what happened in Cusco and Puno.

The official said that when the Arequipazo struck, it took nine months to recover tourist activity. “Unfortunately, we came from a pandemic problem where tourism companies went bankrupt and a few more are currently about to go bankrupt,” he said.

With this forecast, the official said that 25% of the 100% of companies that survived the pandemic could disappear with this new event.

They ask for state bailout

Businessmen who have already been hit by the critical situation have sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur). Rubina indicated to La República that in the document they are requesting the rescheduling of the credits they obtained through the Reactiva Peru program with the same rates. “Banks want to do a refinancing with much higher rates than when we applied for the loan,” said Rubina.

Another point that they request is the extension of the term for the payment of Income Tax, the latter is a tribute that is paid annually. The amounts paid by the businessmen are variable, since it depends on the utility that each one of them had.” If this payment, which is normally made in March, is postponed; It would give us a break.”

They also asked the government for an incentive program for national tourism, under the model applied in Argentina, which was called Pre-trip. The representative explained that from now on, they arranged a meeting with the Undersecretary of Tourism in Argentina in order for them to tell the Peruvian authorities about the experience applied in their country.

According to Rubina, the Argentine program consists of a direct subsidy for tourists to make purchases from suppliers in that sector. This program in the southern country was applied between October and December of last year.

In January 2019, there were 25,000 tourists

According to the Tourism manager, in January 2019, 25,000 foreign tourists visited the city of Arequipa and received income of 180,000 soles. Meza said that this would be the proportion of what was lost now.

On the other hand, he indicated that in the face of protests or other emergencies, the tourist protection system is activated. There were no incidents, because there are no visitors.

Source: Larepublica

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