Dimitris Kouimtsidis
RESTAURANT owners in Malaga estimate that there has been about €270 million in losses and 80,000 people in the industry without jobs.
The bar and restaurant sector accounts for about 30% of all the ERTEs in Andalucia.
The restaurant association in the province of Malaga believes it will be at least six months before the situation returns to normal and customers go back to the numbers they were before.
The industry will be the last to recover, due to the absence of tourists and the need for social distancing, even when other businesses return to work.
Coronavirus hit at a devastating time, as the high season was about to start, with Easter just around the corner.
Many businesses had spent a lot of money on preparing for the upcoming influx of tourists, by renovating and stocking up on supplies, only for that not to happen, which has now caused huge losses.
Juan Manuel Buri, one of the owners of Casa Lola spoke to the Diario Sur and said that European countries will follow in the footsteps of China, where life still hasn’t returned back to normal.
“2020 is already lost, I would settle for not losing more money for the rest of the year.”
