What message have you come to send to your colleagues in the hotel and catering industry and to state services?
The message to send as president of the UMIH is that there are fights to be fought for a much greener tourism, tourism which has a social and environmental impact. Also say that union action is not just an action of protest, it is an action of proposal to improve our professions, our visibility and the reception of young people in our professions. And then you have to look yourself in the face. The problems that impact our world of hotels and restaurants are Uberization with furnished tourist accommodation like Airbnb. Speaking with my colleagues here in Montauban, I saw companies which are in great difficulty because they are telescoped by people who do not pay taxes, who do not pay taxes, who are not controlled. The State will have to take a position on these issues otherwise it will be the death of small businesses. We are always talking about the liberalism of the economy, but this is a very harsh, very capitalist liberalism which puts our sectors in danger.
Yet your sector knows how to adapt? We are thinking about revising server salaries to be more attractive…
Yes, we are adapting, we are resilient, but there are still 8,000 businesses that closed last year. We are going through a very tough crisis today in businesses because they no longer have cash flow. This cash flow was absorbed by the cost of energy. Companies that arrive at the court risk not being granted any kind of aid. We always pull Bercy’s sleeve. Afterwards, it must be recognized that businesses were able to survive thanks to loans guaranteed by the State. But these companies should not disappear today. And what would we do with these state-guaranteed loans? We cannot make communities pay for them.
Have you questioned the prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne about this uberization of your sector?
Indeed, why do some people not pay tax? Why do some people not pay taxes on French soil? And why it is simply the companies, the hotel and restaurant business leaders who are constantly taxed, overtaxed, controlled. Today we are controlled on hygiene, which is normal, but it is private companies which do it with sometimes arbitrary formulas. This all lacks coherence. It is time for the hotel and restaurant union to modernize itself to tell the State what is wrong and denounce this deregulation of the system.
For you is it a question of the future? What will French gastronomy be like in the years to come?
Quite. The French style, French gastronomy today, it is a bit put on the back burner because it is not accompanied at all. When you take Spain and provinces like Catalonia or the Basque Country, you see very powerful, very strong support. Support from the regions, not necessarily from the State, can create attractiveness. In France, we always have a little doubt about yes or no, should we increase VAT? Are we going to add an additional tax or an additional control? For example, before the Olympic Games, a ministry wanted to control 10,000 hotels but not furnished tourist accommodation. So you cast shame on a profession and then you leave aside these somewhat vague companies which do not pay tax in France and you let it happen. The State must play its role as arbiter by saying what is permitted and what is not.
