The first easing of restrictions on the control of the contagious corona virus had not taken hotels and restaurants into account. Restaurants and inns may continue to sell only via home service or meals for collection and in hotels only guests with important business appointments may stay. But now some politicians are holding out the prospect that hotels and restaurants may reopen from May 4 if strict hygiene and clearance rules are observed.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Economics Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) gives innkeepers and hoteliers hope for the reopening. At the moment, NRW is working together with Baden-Württemberg and other federal states on a uniform concept that promises to reopen restaurants and hotels in the period after May 4th. The developed concept will be available for discussion at the latest between the federal and state governments on April 30th and will be discussed there. Throughout Germany, around 70,000 hotels and restaurants are facing financial ruin as a result of the closings.
A prominent opponent of an early opening of restaurants and hotels is the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, who has announced that the restaurant will not be open until Pentecost. Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Economic Affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, on the other hand, supports opening from May 4th.
“We finally have to offer a perspective for the hotel and catering trade. We have to do everything to ensure that our companies are allowed to open again successively from May 4th in compliance with strict hygiene and clearance rules. We will present a concept for this promptly, ”the minister confirmed to the Southwest Press. So it will be interesting to see whether the opening of the catering businesses at the meeting at the end of the month is really decided.
