3 questions to Susanne Droux

Susanne Droux is managing director of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHG) and responsible for vocational training and industry promotion. Zarges from Freyberg Hotel Consulting asked the industry expert about the current situation in the hotel and catering industry.

Will we be over it soon and can we breathe a sigh of relief in our industry?

A first sigh of relief went through Bavaria's tourism. From Monday, May 10, 2021, it will be possible to open outdoor catering with “tests and appointments” in districts with a stable incidence of less than 100. Markus Söder rated the situation as “stable” for the first time. For the Pentecost holidays, the opening of hotels and holiday apartments with “tests and hygiene concepts” is expected. After a never-ending seven months of the second lockdown, this step was overdue. After all, 447,000 employees in Bavaria's hospitality industry had to wait far too long for a signal and a perspective. They are here now, even though it will be months before, if anything, the old normality will return.‍

In your opinion, who is coming out of the crisis better, the city or the holiday hotel industry?

At first glance, hotels and restaurants in holiday regions, i.e. in rural areas, will clearly be able to fill up their beds and tables again much more quickly. Domestic tourism will boom in summer 2021, as in the summer of last year. Families in particular want to book their holidays in Germany because the safest protection and hygiene concepts are used here. But other European countries will also benefit from this holiday trend. By contrast, city hotels, with their high proportion of foreign guests and business travelers from all over the world, will certainly need months before trade fairs and major events become part of daily business again.

Is there also anything positive about the crisis?

Corona has caused global tourism the biggest crisis since the Second World War. That cannot be trivialized or trivialized. But despite everything, every crisis also offers opportunities. Many companies have used the guest-free time for operational restructuring and redesign, but also for new business models such as to-go, food delivery and, in the logistics sector, for long-stay concepts. Digitalization has also picked up steam noticeably during the crisis. Video conferences, modern communication and home office are currently noticeably changing the working world. Fast dialogue and coordination are now ideally possible without long journeys, saving time and resources. Above all, teams have often grown close together during this crisis, especially when solidarity between employers and employees has built and deepened new trust.