ALICANTE – Financial aid is on its way to ailing hospitality establishments and companies in the tourism sector. On Monday Regional President Puig launched the Covid Cooperation Fund worth €120million.
Financial aid available
The funds will be available to the most affected companies in the hospitality and tourism sectors. These will include hotels, leisure, travel agencies, and culture industries. According to authorities’ calculations, 330,000 companies and self-employed affected by the pandemic could claim financial aid.
The Covid Cooperation Fund consists of the regional government (50%), the provinces of Alicante, Castellon, and Valencia (30%), and the municipalities (20%). The regional government will manage the Fund in consultation with the other bodies.
Desperate
The regional business community has been urging the regional government for financial assistance for months to prevent thousands of companies from bankruptcy. Catering associations claim that their sector alone in the province of Alicante requires €75million to survive. Desperate companies in the sector threatened a series of protests if the president did not speak up before next Monday.
The new support fund, which will be ratified in the coming days, aims to bring the most affected Valencian companies back to the market. ‘Our goal is that no viable business is closed and no self-employed is doomed to disappear,’ Ximo Puig explained
