Paying €7.50 for an access test to visit cafés and restaurants: the hospitality industry is FURIOUS!
Oh, how happy we are about the leaked news that the terraces are reopening! But there is also a downside: will sitting on a terrace and having a bite to eat soon become an elitist activity? Will we finally be allowed to visit the hospitality industry again, and will we then be €7.50 per person lighter before we have even had anything to drink? If it is up to the government, yes, because if you want to visit a hospitality venue, you will have to pay for a rapid COVID-19 test starting in July. This is stated in a bill on access testing, which the cabinet approved on Friday.
Just having a cup of coffee? I think I’ll drink my coffee at home from now on; otherwise, you’ll quickly be down ten euros! Wine with a snack board? I’ll have that in an inflatable pub in the garden…
Insane reality
Almost a year ago, we cautiously wrote about it: paying to sit on a terrace: the future? According to Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN), it could very well happen… At the time, we wrote that it was quite possible that prices would rise, or even worse: that we would have to pay just to be allowed onto a terrace. It sounded insane to me at the time, but a year later it is reality: starting in July, you will have to pay to visit the hospitality industry.
‘I am angry. We are not participating in this’
Hospitality entrepreneurs can decide for themselves whether or not they want to participate in access testing. The practical implementation for the hospitality industry still needs to be worked out, but for now the sector is reacting furiously to the plan that their guests will soon have to pay €7.50 for an access test in order to visit their establishment. ‘This is absolutely insane,’ is the general reaction on the social media channels of hospitality trade magazine Misset Horeca. Many entrepreneurs also say they will not participate:
‘I’m not asking anyone for that. Why get tested if you feel fine and have no symptoms?! Madness!!!’ Another says: ‘They have completely lost the plot. We will not participate in this; then we simply won’t open!’
‘I am angry. We are not participating in this. Which washed-up primary school teacher in the cabinet came up with this? Or should we blame the overconfident OMT for it? Sorry, but this has nothing to do with COVID-19 anymore. None of the infections happening now are coming from the hospitality industry—we have been closed since October 15, 2020: that is six months.‘
Subject to conditions
The hospitality industry also says it is fed up with ‘probably and maybe news’ being reported all the time. ‘Stop raising false hopes.’ And I completely agree. It is always ‘maybe this and maybe that’, and then there are all sorts of conditions: according to insiders in The Hague, the terraces will open on April 28, again ‘subject to conditions’. There is talk of a maximum of two people at one table, or more if the people are from the same household. The opening would also come with a closing time of 6:00 p.m. How lovely!
KHN is angry too
Plans are presented to the government time and again, only for little or nothing to be done with them. If access tests continue to cost €7.50, that will create a huge barrier and a division in society. Using an access test should never be a condition for reopening, says KHN.
For KHN, reopening the terraces alone is also insufficient. The organization wants no more restrictions: no closing time and no maximum number of people per terrace or table. According to KHN, the 6:00 p.m. closing time will actually put extra pressure on enforcement after closing, with all the consequences that entails. Moreover, the evening is precisely the biggest source of income for entrepreneurs. ‘It can no longer be explained if guests subsequently move to parks, squares and streets after 6:00 p.m. with drinks and food from the supermarket, while the hospitality industry has to close its doors again.’
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Source: Misset Horeca
