05 May 2020

Transport – Tourism – Restaurants and the Hotel sector towards a “new normal”

Transport – Tourism – Hospitality and Restaurants towards a “new normal”
The tourism sector continues to prepare for the new normality to which this situation marked by the Covid pandemic19 leads us. Starting this Monday, May 4th in the program set by the government to establish guidelines to initiate a return to a certain normality,, different options are opened for the hotel and restaurant segment and also many uncertainties. It is true that it allows the opening of conditioned establishments in relation to the new regulations published in the BOE in relation to the ministerial order SND-386/2020. This new regulation makes social measures more flexible and imposes the Conditions for opening retail establishments and commercial premises and the provision of similar services to the public. Hygiene and capacity measures or the opening conditions of the terraces of the hotel and restaurant establishments, apart from establishing specific conditions, also generate uncertainty in the sector, especially due to the lack of information regarding the viability of the new opening and return to activity.

It is also complicated in the area of ​​collective transport, where intensive work is done to build trust and security. This week, the measures adopted to provide the service have been updated. Until now, trains, subways, buses and coaches, or private transport vehicles with drivers, could only occupy a third of their capacity. On this same date of May 4, it goes to 50% occupancy. Likewise, the specific regulations in the Ministerial Order TMA / 384/2020 indicate that users of public transport must wear a mask to access the service. Likewise, it is recommended to maintain, as far as possible, the distance between the rest of the users and it is recommended to use a single seat per row of seats or to establish a reasonable distance in the means of transport that allow you to travel standing up. Another recommendation is to maintain exhaustive hand hygiene both before and immediately after using the service. A good recommendation is to be able to carry the corresponding bottle of hydroalcoholic liquid in travel size, since it allows immediate use in every circumstance.

Transport companies have also immediately adapted to the new measures. In the case of the company Avant Grup it has already communicated to its clients and collaborators the new measures to update users on the new situation in which we operate.

In the attached infographic you can see a typical occupation of a public transport vehicle and the users distributed according to the regulations of occupying only one of the places for each row of seats. In the case of coaches, the first seat behind the driver will not allow occupancy by passengers, except if there is a partition between the first row of seats and the driver’s seat. This same situation can be passed on to the other types of buses and coaches, regardless of their capacity, or to private vehicles and minivans with drivers. In the latter case, some units already have protection elements installed between the driver’s seat and the rear seats for passengers.

These measures, accompanied by cleaning and disinfection protocols, influence the increase in trust towards users and work with the same criteria as the rest of the actors linked to the tourism sector. Altogether, it ends up benefiting the Tourist Destination so that as soon as possible it can return to a certain normality.

In a first phase, the reactivation would be carried out by proximity trips and within the same territorial area. In a recent survey carried out by the University of Barcelona, the Delta del Ebro, Costa Brava and the Pyrenees would be the three destinations preferred by families in Catalonia to be able to make the first trips. In relation to activities, preferences include those that are in some way linked to nature, gastronomy and culture.

In this sense, to have a certain return to activity, apart from the activities of the domestic market of each tourist destination, it will also be crucial the moment in which airlines can start operating their proximity flights, since it would facilitate first movements of travelers. For its part, the EU is already preparing the plan to reactivate the airlines so that it can be ready in these next two weeks.