The Coronavirus has a stranglehold on the world and
here in Berlin obviously all the museums are closed among many other things.
And right now I have an appointment with Robert Rückel from the German Spy Museum
to ask him what impact the coronavirus crisis is having on the city's tourist facilities.
What does the coronavirus crisis mean for your museum?
Well, the museum is closed, so this is the worst case scenario for us,
as we are a private museum and therefore absolutely dependent on visitors coming to us.
If you dare to venture a glimpse into the future, what do you think will happen now?
Currently we are closed until April 19 of this year.
I'm afraid it will not stay on April 19 and the tourist attractions will remain closed for even longer.
How long that might be is like taking a look into a crystal ball, because you hardly can imagine.
And even then tourism will start again very slowly, even after the crisis, until people start to book holidays again,
until they start to travel again, that will take months,
for sure, until a considerable number of visitors come back to us.
With your association you also represent other museums, cinemas and public city tours.
What is the prevailing mood there right now?
This is of course practically identical everywhere.
At least since the regulation was enforced in Berlin, all tourist attractions,
all sightseeing providers, all cinemas... all of them have closed.
All attractions, all facilities that INTOURA e.V. represents are no longer open to the public.
And all of them have serious concerns about how things will continue.
Of course there are some who still have a bit of savings
and there are some who already have no more money in their account.
You have to bear in mind that our peak season actually starts now.
Now shortly before Easter the main season starts and after a long winter the coffers will be filled.
That's for most of our members. And now that is not happening.
The cash registers are empty after the winter and nothing new is coming in now.
So we need money very quickly.
What does this crisis mean now, not only for you and those you represent,
but perhaps in a fundamental way for tourism here in Berlin?
I think tourism as a whole is something strong. I think tourism will come back again.
In Berlin, too, tourism plays a very important role, we are the third most visited city in Europe.
I believe that in the long term this will not have any effect on normal tourism.
I could imagine that it will have an impact on the business sector.
Maybe people will realize that a trade show does not make sense and that
many things can be arranged without a trade show through virtual reality, telephone networks, etc.
The experience on the ground, the experience of a foreign culture, a foreign city, a foreign history.
It will never be possible to virtualize this, but tourism will come back -
the only question is how many providers will still exist.
This crisis will hopefully be over at some point. What do you think? What comes after that, what happens next?
It will then take a very long time until the number of visitors increases again.
We will have to do a lot of tourism marketing.
We have to tell the people it is safe, that they don't have to be afraid anymore. Go travel!
We do not need to be afraid of cancellations, of being infected.
And then I believe that at some point people will start travelling again.
Of course, this will take many months and will certainly drag on until we have normal business again,
certainly into next year. That is my firm belief.
We will have to make sure that there will be government support for investments.
If this income will be missing for many weeks or even months, we will not be able to realize
many investments which we have planned this year for our members.
And then of course this will affect tradesmen, IT companies and so on.
Because we will not commission them anymore.
What requests do you potentially have for the government?
Well, a lot of things are being done in one piece.
Liquidity support is of course very important so that we can finance our current expenditure.
But we have a lot of companies that have hardly had any dealings with loans -
until now they have all been tourism companies, many small businesses.
They are not experienced in such things.
And they are also very afraid to take out loans now, not knowing if they will ever be able to pay them back.
I believe that only with loans can we not only not absorb the economic downturn in our industry,
but that there must also be actual financial support.
I am not asking for all the lost profits to be paid out to us now, that wouldn't be affordable at all, but of course
we have fixed costs as far as rents are concerned, as far as long-term advertising contracts are concerned.
And of course there is also short-time work compensation for our employees,
but that is only 60 percent.
If the crisis lasts longer, nobody will be able to survive on 60 percent of their salary.
And a lot more needs to happen on the political front.
It's not just about loans that have to be repaid,
but also about fixed funds that we can keep and then implement and invest them.
Thank you and all the best for the future!
Thank you!