Corona aid: 145 million for the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Created: 05/11/2022, 08:00

By: Catherine Brumbauer

Business is back: the Garmischer Hof was also closed for nine months during Corona.

Thanks to state aid, the restart was successful - and hotel clerk Erkan Eril can serve guests coffee again.

© Thomas Very

The consequences of the pandemic for the economy are immense.

The Bavarian state government in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen has supported stricken companies with more than 145 million euros since July 2020.

District – Two years of the corona pandemic have brought the hospitality industry to its breaking point.

Daniel Schimmer, district chairman of the hotel and restaurant association Dehoga from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, makes no secret of it.

"The bridging aid was vital if the fixed costs remained the same," he emphasizes.

Without the financial support, the hotels would not have been able to retain their employees and would not have been able to open at all after the nine months of closure.

The amount of state subsidies that have flowed into the industry shows that the hospitality industry has been particularly hard hit here in the region.

Around 80 million euros went to hotels and restaurants.

In total, companies in the district that are threatened have received more than 145 million euros since July 2020 (more than 4800 applications).

High Corona aid does not create euphoria: What do you have to pay back?

That's a lot of money.

But Schimmer, manager of the Hotel Garmisch Hof in the district town, does not break out in euphoria.

“We have to wait until it is finally checked whether we have to repay the aid.” In Bavaria, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) for Munich and Upper Bavaria is responsible for processing the economic aid on behalf of the state government.

The chairman of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen IHK regional committee, Peter Lingg, is convinced of the effect of the aid.

"They prevented a broad wave of bankruptcies in the district," says the head of the district savings bank.

And further: "The high amount of subsidies paid shows how much large parts of the regional economy have suffered from the government restrictions in the past two years of the corona pandemic."

Big challenges in the pandemic: lockdown and little predictability

Not only the ordered lockdowns were a challenge for hotels and restaurants.

"Even when we were allowed to open again, we had very little lead time and had to get through another main season straight away," emphasizes Schimmer.

“We had to get back from zero to one hundred.” He is enthusiastic about how that worked, for example in the Corona summer of 2021.

"From June to October we had 100,000 more overnight stays than in the same period in 2019. That is a phenomenal result."

For such a short-term restart, it is essential that all employees remain motivated on board.

Many hoteliers could have accommodated the employees by increasing the short-time work allowance, says Schimmer.

In the catering industry, employees usually receive extra pay for Sunday and holiday work.

This is not taken into account in the short-time work allowance.

"Thanks to the help, we were able to balance that out." At the moment, business is up and running again.

And the next summer season is just around the corner.

"Politicians must now do everything they can to support the economy on its way to normalization," emphasizes Lingg.

He names the energy and raw material crises in the wake of the Ukraine war as two challenges.

"Our companies need less stress instead of more."