News

           

                   AHRL organise the 5th International Conference of

Hotel and Restaurant Industry

The Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Latvia (AHRL) in cooperation with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union and Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIDA) are implementing the Project “International Conference of Hotel and Restaurant Industry „Impact of the Economic Situation on the Hotel & Restaurant Industry - Crisis or Opportunities? ”“ and within its scope on October 22, 10:00 o’clock at “Reval Hotel Rīdzene” organise the 5^th International Conference of Hotel and Restaurant Industry „Impact of the Economic Situation on the Hotel & Restaurant Industry - Crisis or Opportunities?” .

It is planned that the Conference will be visited by almost one hundred top-level managers and owners of hotels and restaurants.

The objective of the Conference is to contribute to the development of the hotel and restaurant business of Latvia, its competitiveness in the region and significance in the exports of Latvia, making the owners and managers of hotels and restaurants acquainted with the most recent trends in the hotel and restaurant industry, providing a comprehensive overview of the organisation of work in a hotel and a restaurant and accentuating the issue how to overcome the period of the economic recession and to use this situation to improve the operation of hotels and restaurants.

The lecturers at the Conference Impact of the Economic Situation on the Hotel and Restaurant Industry – crisis or Opportunities” will be experienced representatives of the hotel and restaurant industry, leaders of institutions representing the interests of this industry at the Latvian and European level, who will deliver lectures on the following topics:

- situation in the hotel and restaurant industry in Europe;

- positive examples in the support of the industry;

-quality of tourism and hospitality services as the precondition of a successful attraction of tourists;

- regarding the course of developing of the unified hotel classification system in the Nordic countries and Central Europe;

- how to position your company and services in the social medium of Internet;

- how to create a different hotel and restaurant product, which helps specialise and attract clients;

- how to use the national cuisine in the menu and how to earn profit with it;

- crisis – a catastrophe or time of changes;

- novel marketing solutions etc.

******************************************************************

                                       

After 17 years, finally a revision of the VAT rate system

 for restaurant services!

For 17 years, HOTREC has been asking for a revision of the EU VAT rate system applicable to restaurant services. HOTREC therefore applauds the political agreement reached today by the 27 Finance Ministers of the EU to give to all Member States the option to apply reduced VAT rates to restaurant services (currently only 11 Member States have this possibility, a situation described as “unfair” by Commissioner Kovács, in charge of taxation).

“This change in the EU VAT rate system is particularly welcome in this time of heavy economic crisis”, said the President of HOTREC, Mr. Kent Nyström. He invites “the governments of all Member States to make use as soon as possible of the option given today”. For years, HOTREC has been advocating reduced VAT rates for restaurant services on the basis of the following arguments:  restaurants services are labour-intensive; they are provided directly to final consumers; they are provided locally, with no risks of distortion of competition; and, above all, the lower prices resulting from the rate reduction will induce increase in demand and employment.

This political agreement should be submitted to the European Council, which is meeting on 19-20 March 2009. Three countries still have to carry out domestic consultations, before they can confirm officially their support to the agreement reached today (apparently they encountered problems with the scope of their negotiating mandates).

---

                         

               VAT rate on hotel services should not to be raised

„VAT rate on hotel services should not to be raised,” stated by the boards of Baltic Hotels’ and Restaurants’ Associations during the meeting in Pärnu on the 9th of July 2008.

Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Hotel and Restaurant Associations had their common boards’ meeting in Pärnu, Estonia. Among the other important issues VAT rate on hotel and restaurant services and joint marketing activities were discussed.  Three associations admitted that Estonian Government’s proposed plan to increase the VAT rate on hotel services would not only have negative impact on Estonia but also will have a negative impact on competitiveness of all three Baltic States within the region and would result in dramatic decrease of hotel sales.

The increase of the VAT rate will give also negative signal to investors and would result in decrease of the credibility of the business environment of all Baltic States.

The associations also pointed out the importance of common marketing activities of Baltic associations in order to improve the awareness of Baltic States as a tourism destination.

It was also stated that joint activities aimed at higher service quality in Baltic hotels should be planned and common Nordic/Baltic Classification System should be implemented in all three Baltic States.

Additional information:

Feliks Mägus, the Chairman of the Estonian Association of Hotels and Restaurants, +3725040766; ;

Juris Zudovs, Chairman of the Latvian Association of Hotels and Restaurants, +37129212474; ;

Egle Dilkiene, Managing Director of the Lithuanian Hotel and Restaurant Association, +37052497478 lvra@mail.lt

 **********************************************************

 

 

                  

                    A common hotel classification system                       

among the Nordic and Baltic Countries

At the annual meeting between the Nordic and Baltic national hotel and restaurant associations today in Vilnius, it was decided to implement common standards for each country’s national hotel classification system.

This means that a number of minimum criteria for the 1-5 stars classification will be equal for the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Denmark and Sweden. The common system will also include star rated hotels in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the islands of Finnish Åland.

The minimum criteria apply to standards, comfort and services for the five different star categories. Hereby a visiting guest will be ensured the same standard no matter what country he or she is staying in.   

During the autumn a Nordic Baltic classification board will be formed at a meeting in Copenhagen. The board will be composed of members from Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the board’s responsibility will be to supervise the system, to change and adjust criteria in the future and to create more common customer information regarding the system and the participating hotels.