Royal Dutch Hospitality Is Fed Up with the Government – and Isn’t That Completely Logical?!
Especially the hospitality industry in Amsterdam and Rotterdam seems to be ignoring some of the coronavirus rules. And we completely understand. Because what are all those rules actually supposed to achieve? Royal Dutch Hospitality (KHN) has had enough too. Does the cabinet even want the hospitality industry to survive?
KHN chairman Robèr Willemsen: ‘I feel that the cabinet is suffering from tunnel vision and I notice that it is paying too little attention to the reality of the day. Support for some of the cabinet’s measures has declined enormously among both consumers and entrepreneurs in recent weeks. As a cabinet, you cannot ignore that, which is why all one-and-a-half-metre restrictions outdoors must disappear immediately,’ he told hospitality trade magazine Misset Horeca.
A Tour of the Circle of Friends
I don’t know what it’s like with your friends, but I can hardly believe that you still stick to that strict 1.5-metre distance, don’t sit in the garden with more than four people, or – and this falls into the same category – genuinely enjoy going out for dinner or having a drink on a terrace. Because let’s be honest: how pleasant is it really in many places? The hospitality industry is an incredibly safe place to go out. But all the restrictions make it extremely difficult to relax there, which is the whole reason for going out in the first place. It starts with that farce at the door, and once inside you have to follow all kinds of rules while that friendly barwoman/man suddenly has to play police officer. And how absurd is that; the hospitality industry is the only sector held responsible for enforcing the rules among the public. Ridiculous, if you ask me.
Rules, Rules
The possible easing of restrictions on 1 July is at most a step in the right direction, but of course it offers hardly any prospect. Because how can you build a healthy business model in a (I can’t stand hearing the word anymore) one-and-a-half-metre economy, and why are all hospitality businesses lumped together under one set of regulations? Why does every establishment have a maximum number of people, rather than a maximum number of people per square metre? I know plenty of businesses that have closed their doors or been forced to change their opening hours (no more lunch, open only at weekends) because the restrictions are not profitable, but also because they are afraid of hefty fines if guests fail to comply with the coronavirus rules. Cafés on Eindhoven’s Stratumseind have by now closed their doors en masse because maintaining that 1.5-metre distance is unworkable. Closing your doors to prevent hefty fines for failing to comply with the coronavirus rules… And then you work in a hospitality industry!
I also know people who, because of the fear drilled into them and all the imposed rules, would rather stay at home. As long as fear continues to reign and rules prevail, the hospitality industry will remain in a stranglehold.
Own Risk
The hospitality industry has already proposed numerous solutions to avoid drowning and reopen profitably. From visiting hospitality venues at your own risk to ventilation solutions. So far, none of it has helped. That is why KHN does not want to lend legitimacy to the cabinet’s rigid attitude, in which it clings to being right and to the many restrictions, while making no progress. As far as I’m concerned, there is only one real solution: stop with the strict one-and-a-half-metre economy. Because this is destroying the hospitality industry. And if the cabinet takes the hospitality sector and its 400,000 employees seriously, it will take action on this quickly.
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