0% VAT for all tourists, one of the six requests made by the tourism sector to President Guillermo Lasso

Tourism, hotels and restaurants also seek dialogue to lift the sector affected by pandemic, stoppages and criminal outbreak.

Comply with credits offered and the refinancing of arrears with the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) and the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), as well as that the Value Added Tax (VAT) is 0 % for tourists, are part of the orders directly raised to President Guillermo Lasso by the tourism sector after three years that consider a Calvary, by two violent national stoppages and the pandemic Criminal, everything that has caused economic damage worse than the effects of the three wars together of 1941, 1981 and 1995.

They also ask for a reprogramming of credits with the public and private banks of ten years.

"The pandemia devastated the cash flow of the sector and then the uncontrolled insecurity as of October 2021, starting with the killings and control losses of the country's prisons: (this) produced that the demand would fall in the middle of the recovery period. The violent unemployment of June 2022, with criminal actions never seen before, does nothing more than attempt with the little that remained of the little business," Representatives of tourism, hotels and restaurants indicate in a letter addressed to the president.

The consequences have been to reduce operations, close premises, finish labor relations with collaborators and fall into very low levels of liquidity without being able to comply with costs and liabilities.

Therefore, they urgently ask that the government consider six measures for the sector:

1. That the public force protects and defends effectively, such as its constitutional duty, life, assets and activities of companies in the sector and their clients. That it has the highest permanent foreign advice, in terms of security, that increase effective, thus hiring the private sector for this purpose while the selection and training processes manage to complete the number of uniformed.
2. That the credits offered by the Government as a working and salvage capital, campaign proposal are delivered. The tourism sector indicates that during 2020 and 2021 it lost $ 4.5 billion and estimates that unemployment and criminal outbreaks have meant at least $ 250 million more in losses. "It is unthinkable that the sector does not have a direct preferential loan for recovery. The small percentage of companies that have managed to access them are paying rates from 11 % to 16 %."
3. Require the SRI, IESS and other state institutions that, without a clipper, comply with the provisions of the Development Law issued in November 2021 and refine the arrears of the 2020 and 2021 years, and that the range of dates is extended to include the first semester of 2022.
4. Carry out a national and international communication campaign through the Ministry of Tourism to recover the image of the destination, now devastated. The current tourism promotion budget for all markets is seven average figures, less than the majority of the 50 largest companies in the country in national advertising.
5. The reprogramming of credits with public and private banking, and other amounts owed to state institutions, not less than ten years, in which they hope that the sector of the three worst years in its history will be recovered.
6. That VAT is decreed 0 % for every foreign tourist and for nationals, in their consumption and purchases, including restaurants, hotels and tour packages. “The emergency that the sector that has faced economic losses must be considered (…), without receiving any help from the government sector, but the increase in taxes to its customers and its operations.

The letter is signed by the president of the Hotel Federation of Ecuador (Ahotec), André Obiol; The president of the National Federation of Provincial Chambers (Fenacaptur), Holbach Muñeton, and the vice president in charge of the Guayas Restaurants Association (Astorest), Carla Colombara. In the letter, sent last July 11, they also ask for an appointment with the president and the competent authorities to personally expose the situation, but until July 20 they have not received an answer.