Dusseldorf The stalls for the Christmas market, which is supposed to open on Thursday, are already in Düsseldorf’s Schadowplatz. Käthe Wohlfahrt’s well-known Christmas house has also given smokers and decorations from the Erzgebirge. The wooden houses from Rothenburg ob der Tauber are usually found on around 60 large Christmas markets around the world.
But in the face of the fourth wave of corona, Harald Wohlfahrt, who is the second generation to run the specialist in Christmas decorations, is worried about his business. He considers a renewed ban on Christmas markets to be completely unjustified. “Then we would lose 60 percent of sales this year.”
The family business has only just survived a bankruptcy. Ironically, three days before Christmas Eve 2020, he had to file for bankruptcy. In the lockdown, sales collapsed by up to 80 percent. The renovation was successful in March, and 260 of 280 jobs were saved.
In the fourth corona wave, calls from the Robert Koch Institute and politicians are getting louder and louder to ban Christmas markets and larger events again – at least regionally. The city of Munich reacted on Tuesday and canceled the Christmas market. The badly shaken trade fair and event industry, which was only allowed to start up its business again in late summer, is resisting vehemently.
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The Federal Association of the Concert and Event Industry warns of a “death knell” for the industry. “If necessary, we would be ready to ask our visitors to submit a current negative rapid test, i.e. to use 2G plus,” says association president Jens Michow. “Trade fairs and events are not drivers of infection,” emphasizes Michael Kynast from the Trade Fairs and Exhibitions Association (Fama). An evaluation of the contact app Luca from October showed that only 7.8 percent of the corona warning messages came from there.
240,000 businesses threatened to exist
“Companies in the industry have been fighting for survival for 20 months, from sound engineers to stand builders and caterers,” says Christian Eichenberger from the Federal Conference on Event Management. The fourth wave triggered a wave of cancellation. Conferences, annual general meetings, festivals and Christmas parties have been canceled in a row.
77 percent of the event companies reported massive cancellations in the past week alone, according to a survey by the federal conference. This is another major blow to the industry. Because the occupancy rate was only 40 percent anyway, the Rifel Institute determined at the beginning of November. Before the pandemic, the industry had sales of 81 billion euros in the year. If you add effects on the economy as a whole, such as the gastronomy, it was even 130 billion euros.
240,000 companies are acutely threatened, the federal conference complains. She is therefore calling for bridging assistance and short-time working benefits to be extended into the summer. The restart aid for self-employed people must be doubled. “We finally need perspectives,” says Eichenberger. 40 to 50 percent of the previous two million workers have already left the industry out of necessity. That makes a new start difficult for years to come.
“Our family businesses have been banned from working for almost two years now and financially at the end”, reports Albert Ritter, President of the German Schaustellerbund. Because many folk festivals were canceled, they were now hoping for the Christmas business. The around 3,000 Christmas markets in this country are an important economic factor. Around 2.88 billion euros are normally turned over there.
“Market merchants like us have already invested a lot in goods, we have hired staff and most of the time we have already paid the stand rents,” says Harald Wohlfahrt. “So that we don’t all get stuck on the costs, the Christmas markets are needed – also in 2G or 3G form.” The city of Düsseldorf decided at short notice to a 2G regulation for the Christmas markets in the city center Those who have recovered have access. 58 percent of Germans are in favor of 2G at Christmas markets, according to a Forsa survey a month ago. On Tuesday, the German Association of Cities called for a nationwide 2G rule in the leisure and cultural sector.
Carnival, the economic engine, is on the brink
The fourth wave also burst in the middle of the opening of the carnival session. The Düsseldorf Carneval Committee, for example, recommended that its clubs cancel all hall events in November. The royal couple’s freestyle planned for Friday in front of 1000 visitors has been postponed to January. A carnival session in Heinsberg 2020 had become a Corona Superspreader event.
The Cologne triumvirate had to start the session on November 11th. stay away because Prince Sven had tested positive for Corona. The carnival, which had to be canceled in 2021, brings in around 600 million euros in the cathedral city alone. This was the result of a study by the BCG consultancy and the Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne 2018. In the Cologne pubs, the jerks danced and drank exuberantly as always in the past few days. Usually only those who had recovered or had been vaccinated were admitted.
The access to the party mile Zülpicher Straße was at the beginning of the carnival on November 11th. only possible with 2G.
(Photo: dpa)
The introduction of 2G is controversial in the trade fair industry. The first trade fairs such as the Green Week in Berlin and the Internorga gastronomy fair in Hamburg will take place in 2022 with 2G. The IG Messewesen, in which trade fair service providers and self-employed people recently met, demands in view of the exploding corona numbers: Only those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered should be allowed access to the halls. International visitors only come to German trade fairs if the risk of infection there is not too high, argues chairman Stefan Terkatz.
In contrast, the Association of the German Exhibition Industry, Auma, which mainly represents exhibitors and large organizers, warned about a 2G obligation just over a week ago. “A mandatory 2G regulation would be a disservice to Germany as a trade fair location, which has so far been at the top of the world because of its internationality,” said Auma Managing Director Jörn Holtmeier. Anyone who is vaccinated with Sputnik V, Sinopharm or Sinovac, for example, is considered unvaccinated in the EU.
The success of many trade fairs in Germany depends on the participation of foreign visitors and exhibitors who are vaccinated but not recognized here, according to Holtmeier. Most of the foreign participants in German trade fairs usually come from China. In 2018 and 2019, 100,000 trade visitors and 17,000 exhibitors came from there. The trade fair industry is therefore calling on the federal government to quickly recognize the WHO list of Covid vaccines.
However, rigid quarantine regulations in their home country are likely to prevent many Asians from visiting trade fairs abroad. In China, for example, there is a two- and often even three-week quarantine requirement for all travelers.
“Exhibitors, visitors and organizers of safely, carefully and responsibly planned trade fairs are deeply insecure,” complains Holtmeier and warns politicians against actionism. The standstill of the trade fair has so far resulted in macroeconomic damage of over 43.5 billion euros. A dramatic loss is again emerging for 2021: over two thirds of the 380 trade fairs planned for 2021 have been canceled since the beginning of the year.
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