An organisation of tourism businesses has suggested that 10,000 jobs may be lost
The tourism sector in the Province of Groningen has developed so strongly over the last few years that it employs 18,000 people. Now 10,000 of them are in danger of being made unemployed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, says an organisation of tourism-entrepreneurs, the Groningen Tourism Cooperative. As reported by the GIC.
The exact number of potential job losses is unclear, but it is certain that this sector has been hit very hard in Groningen. Entrepreneurs in the sector have so far shown resilience, but will certainly require additional support from the government, says the Cooperative.
This Groningen Tourism Cooperative was founded at the end of 2019, with the aim of uniting tourism entrepreneurs and working together to strengthen the sector.
At the beginning of this year, the Cooperative was still working on plans to increase the number of jobs by six thousand, by 2030, making tourism one of the main sources of employment in the province of Groningen.
But with the advent of Coronavirus, the future suddenly looks completely different. The Groningen Tourism Cooperation has now sent a letter “to everyone involved in the development of the leisure economy in the Province of Groningen”.
In it, chairman Klaas Holtman writes, among other things: “Given the importance of the sector for employment, but certainly also for the prosperity and well-being of the people of Groningen, it is of great importance that the built-up fine-grained tourist infrastructure is preserved and strengthened. That is why it is highly desirable and, more strongly, necessary that additional measures are taken at provincial or national level. ”
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