The Ministry of Business and Industry also transforms into a criticized loan scheme.
The Danish travel industry receives a direct government subsidy of DKK 725 million, and then a criticized loan scheme is also changed. This means that individual members of the Travel Guarantee Fund are now solely liable for their own loans.
This is stated by the Ministry of Business, after all parties in the Folketing, with the exception of New Citizens, have agreed on an agreement.
Specifically, all loan repayments are made individually for anyone who should have started from April 14, 2020 until May 10, 2020.
In support, DKK 600 million goes to the Travel Guarantee Fund’s fund for extraordinary situations. And then another DKK 125 million is added to the fund for package travel in the fund.
We listen, of course, when the travel industry in the fight for survival comes with a cry. For it is important for all of us that there is also a travel company, an airline or a bus company that we can book the journeys with after this time, says Business Minister Simon Kollerup (S).
The travel industry has been on its knees in recent months, with the corona pandemic virtually eliminating all their earnings from one day to the next.
Initially, the travel industry was given a separate support scheme where they could borrow from a pool of DKK 1.5 billion.
However, this scheme was strongly criticized. This is because the individual members of the Travel Guarantee Fund are collectively liable for the loans.
Eight travel companies threatened to leave Denmark
Business Minister Simon Kollerup (S) tried to meet the criticism. He suggested that in future the agencies should collectively collect one-third of the debt – the remaining part they are individually liable for .
This was also not well received, and last week caused eight travel companies to threaten to leave the Danish travel guarantee fund .
We feel that if you do not want to help make a fair arrangement, then we are almost thrown out. We cannot afford to pay two to three times as much money back as what we borrow, said Bjarke Hansen, founder and CEO of Primo Tours and co-signer of the letter.
Later, a total of 45 travel companies supported the dismissal of colleagues .
Today, however, there is a different strain in the travel industry, which fulfills their two biggest wishes for direct state aid and individual liability for loans.
We have been given a much needed financial respite that the travel industry has greatly needed. But it is also important to remember that we are facing a challenging future. Nobody knows when we can get the planes in the air, says Henrik Specht, director of the Danish Travel Organizers’ association.
Why is it reasonable that you should receive special treatment and direct state aid? Restaurants, hotels and a lot of other industries are also suffering right now?
We have the special challenge that we also have to pay back. To make the comparison with the restaurant you can say: The restaurant has no guests, the travel industry has no guests. But in addition, tour operators have to give a figurative figure for the guests who ate at the restaurant last month, says Henrik Specht.
Source: dr.dk
