The hotel industry's recovery is still slow, according to recent statistics from the industry organization Visita. Now the industry wants to see action from decision-makers.

”"Bookings in March are down almost 30 percent compared to 2019," says Thomas Jakobsson, chief economist at Visita.

The industry organization Visita, which represents players in the hospitality industry in Sweden, has, together with the company "benchmarking alliance", compiled statistics on hotel occupancy rates in March 2022, and the statistics show that the recovery from the pandemic is still slow. Despite the lifting of restrictions, the occupancy rate is 29 percent lower than at the same time in 2019.

”"There are mainly three reasons why the booking rate is low, one is that business travel has not returned yet, and it will probably take time before it does. Then conferences have a long way to go, even though bookings have started. And the third is that there is still a lack of foreign guests"”

It is worst in Stockholm – where the booking rate is 39 percent lower than at the same time in 2019. 

”"Now we are finally free of restrictions, and it is with great relief that we welcome it. But at the same time, we see that bookings have not normalized yet, and we still have 30–40 percent left until normal conditions, and that is worrying," says Thomas Jakobsson.

Now Visita wants decision-makers to act – by halving the VAT from twelve to six percent. Visita believes that this will stimulate domestic travel consumption, but also facilitate the industry's recovery period. 

”Domestic private demand is recovering quite quickly, and that is what we will have to rely on now – as foreign guests and business guests are delayed,” says Thomas Jakobsson. 

But the Ministry of Finance says that any such, or other, measure is not currently in place.

”"Throughout the pandemic, the government has made decisions on historically large support measures. As recently as February, several support measures have been put in place, and the possibilities for deferring tax payments have been expanded and made more favorable. Last fall, the government presented a budget with powerful measures to support the restart of the economy after the corona pandemic. There is no further work underway beyond what has already been presented," says Mirjam Kontio, press secretary to Minister of Finance Mikael Damberg. 

Source: DI.SE