"The coronavirus emergency risks causing further victims if we do not act quickly”. This is Biagio's heartfelt appeal Salerno, president of the Maratea Tourist Consortium, which brings together the seaside tourist resort on the Lucanian coast, the Potenza side and part of the district.
In a letter sent to the Lucanian governor Vito Bardi, to the regional council of Basilicata, to the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, to the ministers Gualtieri, Franceschini e Calogero Provenzano, each for their role and to the mayor of Maratea, the President Biagio Salerno requests that measures be taken to truly support the sector quickly.
"Don't leave us alone. Listen to our cry of alarm. We ask for help for tourism, to avoid adding more deaths with the disastrous economic crisis, for Italy and for our hoped-for future and that of our children. The health crisis is silently destroying our lives, our economy and with it our companies, our numerous sacrifices in a territory already in difficulty. We need interventions with important and extraordinary measures" he added Salerno "that will be able to give us and guarantee us, the relaunch of our economy, already fragile, tied to our sector. Tourism is the sector most affected by the health emergency, with cancellations reaching up to 100%".
Il Maratea Tourist Consortium calls for specific interventions summarized as follows:
- Need for ready liquidity;
- facilitated access to guarantee funds;
- suspension of mortgage payments for the whole of 2020;
- suspension of payments relating to taxes and duties on a date to be defined, until companies are able to pay;
- tax bonus, which could be linked to the decline in business income in 2020 compared to 2019;
- rental bonus to be extended until it is possible to travel to Italy again;
- tax credit of 75% of documented expenses for sanitizing environments;
- promotional actions, at a national and international level, with promotional marketing and valorisation of the strengths of the Maratea coast: sea, environment, culture, art, archaeology, history, traditions and local products;
- investments in digital, the value of which has been further highlighted with the coronavirus health crisis;
- special measures with investments in public and private infrastructures that increase the tourist competitiveness of the Maratea area;
- reduction of bureaucracy and tax pressure;
- extraordinary communication plan to promote the Italian market with the immediate aim of recovering internal demand;
- strengthening of transport and creation, also for the south, of missing infrastructure such as high speed.
"With the collapse of tourism, the sector cannot be left alone. We need to act quickly in an extremely difficult moment for the hospitality world. The system was completely paralyzed in a very important period between winter tourism and summer holiday bookings. These are difficult days for everyone; our lives and those of our businesses have been turned upside down and the perception that the return to normality will not be so easy is tangible. We are aware" Biagio concluded Salerno “that we must respond to the crisis by exploiting new opportunities. Despite adversities, counting on your support, we believe it is essential to maintain a positive attitude to avoid catastrophic thoughts, with the hope of being protagonists of our lives by restarting with the usual activities".
Maratea Tourist Consortium
Il Maratea Tourist Consortium is an organization that brings together over 30 operators from the Maratea area with the aim of enhancing and promoting the Lucanian tourist destination. Within the organization there are accommodation facilities and operators who contribute, in various capacities, to completing the tourism supply chain. Maratea also takes advantage of the nickname "the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea" thanks to the natural beauty and attention to tourist sustainability that characterize it.
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