Hospitality satisfied with curfew change, but want interiors open as well

The Government of the Canary Islands agreed on Thursday to delay the curfew for islands in Level 3 (Tenerife and Gran Canaria), from 10pm to 11pm, an hour that will be a "relief" for the hospitality and catering industry, as they feel they can now serving dinners at the usual times. However, this measure has been welcomed in a bittersweet way by many, because, although it benefits those premises that have a terrace, it does not help establishments that don’t.

The negotiating table for this matter, made up of Health technicians; representatives appointed by the Association of Employers of Bars, Cafes and Restaurants and Nightlife of Las Palmas (FEHT); AERO in Tenerife; and the Tourist Federation of Lanzarote, proposed the time change for the curfew last week.

But they also requested the reopening of interiors of premises to a maximum of 33% capacity with an enforced separation between the tables of two metres. "The Government has given us half of what we requested," said Carlos Quintero, vice president of AERO, "but it is essential that all these businesses that have been closed for more than a month can open again now, so we will keep insisting that this is the next measure”.

Quintero explained that changing the curfew for just one hour will make it easier for many restaurants in areas with local clients, to serve dinners at the usual hours "and, in tourist areas, up to two shifts when tourists are here." If the Government accepts the proposal to open the interiors next week, as the vaccination rate is being increased and, finally, financial aid is starting to be received, the hospitality industry "will start to breathe", but to do so , he insisted, "it is essential that those places that do not have terraces are allowed to open."

The president of FAUCA in Santa Cruz, Abbas Moujir, described the curfew cut until 11pm as positive, but also stressed the importance of opening the interiors of the establishments. "It has been shown during these months that they have been closed that the increase in infections is not the fault of the restauration, but, above all, of illegal private parties and individual irresponsibility."

In a joint statement, they point out that the delay of the curfew is the "first step" to the solution that the sector needs, but they also regretted that the hopes that a large part of the sector had on the authorization of opening interiors of the premises this week "are truncated this time."

"We want to highlight the tremendous damage and strangulation that this situation entails for many, which already adds up to too many consecutive weeks and with many doubts as to why it is," they said.

RESTAURANTS IN LEVELS 1 AND 2 MUST REGISTER CLIENTS:
In relation to the new measure regarding the obligation in Levels 1 and 2 to request the data of customers who access the interior of the premises, the Associations said that "we have asked for more information in this regard and its immediate stoppage, since it is surprising that new requirements are imposed on the already complicated situation of the sector, which will mean an increase in the economic costs of training and storing this data, during the required time. At no time has this been discussed at the negotiating table and neither has it been commented on by the Julio Pérez at the press conference”.

However, this measure of taking data from customers in order to be able to locate them in case a positive is detected among them in the following days, has already been applied previously in some hospitality businesses in the Canary Islands, including the urban area of La Laguna, where users had to fill in a sheet with their data before entering bars and restaurants.