Isha Sesay
MORE than half of Mallorca’s bars and restaurants will be forced to close under Level 4 of coronavirus restrictions.
That’s the stark prediction made by the Confederation of Business Associations (CAEB) after the Balearic government announced that the island would be upgraded to the most serious level of the tier system.
According to the business union, the 10pm curfew had already ‘been a death sentence to many bars and restaurants’.
However, with the order to prohibit the use of their interior areas and to close by 6pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, ‘it is now unfeasible for a considerable number to open’.
“If these new measures do not yield any positive results, the government will have lost all of its credibility”, said CAEB in an open statement.
The president of the Federation of Small and Medium Businesses (PIMEM), Jordi Mora, echoed this sentiment.
“It is certain that more than 50% of bars and restaurants in Mallorca will have to close as a result of the tightening of restrictions,” he said.
Although branding the new restrictions as ‘necessary to control the virus’, Mora warned that ‘if the situation does not improve, the hospitality sector will most certainly die by the summer of next year’.
CAEB president Carmen Planas has demanded that the government protects companies and workers impacted under Level 4 of the tier system.
She said: “There must be a reduction in taxes or for businesses to be exempt from certain expenses, such as paying for their trash.”
Balearic Minister for Tourism and Labour, Iago Negueruela, has since announced that affected bars and restaurants can benefit from €1,500 in aid.
This will however have to paid back to the government in an agreed timeframe.
