Qualitaly_121

FEB. MAR. 2021 I AT PAGE 1 Let’s look to the future, despite everything! It’s 2021. It is exactly one year since the first case of Covid-19. And yet, it feels like an eternity. Probably because we are still in the midst of this health emergency and, apart from a few timid signs, we do not see - especially for our sector - any real change of course in the immediate future. During the Christmas holidays, with most businesses closed (open only for take-away), we thought we’d hit rock bottom. But we had no idea that the axe of ski resort closures was still around the corner, and that this has definitely put a damper on winter sales in our sector. The Qualitaly issue we produced was perhaps the most difficult since the magazine’s inception. I have often discussed this with the magazine’s coordinator, Maria Elena Dipace, and together we have tried to understand what kind of magazine and what kind of services to include in it, starting from one assumption: we can no longer ignore the fact that the entire sector is on its knees. And, starting with the cover, we tried to get this message across by choosing a young restaurateur, Fabio Petrozzi (see page 30), who told us his story as a seasonal restaurateur, making us understand - right from the cover shot - that operators in the sector now have empty pockets. But the crisis in the sector is affecting the entire supply chain, including distributors. Here, then, is the article on page 10 where President Murgia and I take stock of the situation that concerns us closely. A situation in which operators are still waiting for the promised refunds (things are a little different abroad - see page 6). There is some hope in the residual EU funding for 2014/2020 that is still available (including for our sector - see page 22), or by trying to obtain a loan from banks, provided you are able to draw up (or have drawn up) a business plan that will enable you to obtain the green light for financing from credit institutions (see page 26). What is certain is that, looking at the cities that are ‘lucky’ to be in the yellow zone, consumers want to regain their space, their life together with all their old habits, first and foremost the desire to go to a restaurant. And this gives us hope that we can count on customers returning to our establishments without hesitation as soon as the grip of restrictions is loosened. So, the answer to getting out of the crisis is to look at the reality around us from different perspectives, waiting for the new Draghi government, on which we place our trust and hopes, to put in place an effective strategy to allow the tourism sector to finally shine again. Because, as the French writer Marcel Proust says: ‘The real voyage of AT PAGE 3 The Draghi effect? Let’s hope so! We have a new government. Even before it was officially signed off, the mere mention of the name by President Mattarella, who had identified former EU President Mario Draghi as the possible new Prime Minister, led to an unprecedented drop in the spread and a rise in government bonds. And it was from the mouth of the newly elected Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, the taciturn prime minister, that the word tourism came out several times in the space of a few days, sounding almost like a declaration of love for the sector. Putting aside his usual aplomb, the prime minister declared forcefully: “After the pandemic, some will not reopen, but tourism will reopen. Investing in tourism, supporting it, is not throwing money away. Because that money will come back.” And this justifies another major innovation of the newborn Draghi government: tourism is to be separated from the ‘umbrella’ of Cultural Heritage and become a ministry in its own right, under the leadership of former Deputy Minister for the Economy, Massimo MAGAZINE Traduzione a cura di Christopher Farley