The Verband Internet Reisevertrieb eV harshly criticizes the latest federal-state conference and accuses that “tourism is to be sacrificed again”. VIR President Michael Buller is now demanding full compensation for the industry.

Furthermore, the functionary said it was “more than disappointing that, against your better judgment, you repeatedly use tourism as a scapegoat for your own failure in the past few months.” He also asks what is more dangerous in a hotel room than in a hardware store.

The head of the association demands from politicians an opening perspective for all tourism with clear guidelines and requirements, without arbitrary quarantine rules making travel more difficult. “It's not about traveling over Easter, but about opening up a perspective at all. The concepts for this have been on the table by the individual industry representatives for months, ”says Michael Buller, annoyed that the experts and even the Robert Koch Institute's own study on vacation travel are being ignored by politicians. "An industry that has been closed for five months cannot be the cause of the third wave," affirmed the VIR board.

The importance of tourism has also been "massively underestimated for a year." Michael Buller: "It is an industry with three million direct and more than 1,2 million indirect jobs, much larger than the automotive industry, for example." In comparison, it is unimaginable that mobility is restricted by prohibiting the production of cars for more than 12 months in Germany.

As a consequence, the VIR board calls for “full compensation” for tourism. "Here, the lost turnover must now also be taken into account, which cannot take place due to the unfortunately totally ineffective lockdown regulations, as well as the entrepreneur's wage demanded from the start," emphasizes Michael Buller. “Every month of sales that tourism companies and service providers lack makes survival all the more difficult now and in the coming winter. It is therefore essential that state aid for tourism is resolved and expanded by the end of the year. "