Alkmaar’s hospitality industry in protest: keeping their doors open
The day before it was announced that all cafés and restaurants would have to close again, they protested in Alkmaar. Because closing again, while all measures are being followed in the hospitality industry? It is the death blow for the beleaguered sector.
After hospitality tycoon Laurens Meyer, the Netherlands’ biggest pub owner, had already threatened to simply reopen the doors of his pubs, Alkmaar entrepreneurs told Rodi they wanted to take action and enter into battle with The Hague. They are even considering staying open ‘as normal’ to make a statement, even though this would risk a €10,000 fine. Alex Karten, co-owner of De Twee Vrienden restaurant on Laat, said this when the measures were leaked earlier.
Death blow for the hospitality industry
“This is an idea that is alive within Alkmaar’s hospitality industry,” Alex told Rodi. “With 107 hospitality businesses, we are in one group chat and discuss pressing issues, such as the coronavirus measures. We have to take action, because I estimate that 40% will not survive being closed for two to four weeks. And so the new measures are the death blow for Alkmaar’s hospitality industry.”
“If the hospitality industry has to close, people will still seek each other out. While we can actually organize things properly and in accordance with all the guidelines.”
Funeral procession
Hans Bezembinder, owner of, among others, Stadskaffe Laurens, is also calling loudly for action. “The time for putting up a poster is over. Why is the hospitality industry once again the victim, while Langestraat is overflowing with visitors and there are simply queues in the supermarkets? It is time to make ourselves heard and yes, staying ‘as normal’ is a serious option. But 95% would have to participate; only then would it have an effect and could such an action spread to other cities. We do not yet know whether it will come to that.”
They are considering organizing a funeral procession for the hospitality industry that is slowly dying. Alkmaar is not the only place in mourning; memorial cards for the hospitality industry are already being shared on social media.
Disbelief, frustration and sadness
The Royal Dutch Hospitality Industry Association (KHN) understands that there is widespread incomprehension within the hospitality industry about the new measures: “The hospitality industry has worked incredibly hard in recent months to provide guests with a safe environment and prevent infections—and with results; according to figures from the RIVM, the number of infections attributable to the hospitality industry was only 1.8 percent in the past week. It is therefore striking that the hospitality industry repeatedly takes the hardest blows; for hospitality entrepreneurs, this closure feels like a punishment. There is widespread incomprehension within the sector.” So said Robèr Willemsen in hospitality trade magazine Entree Magazine. “For many hospitality entrepreneurs, this closure is truly the final blow.”
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