HYANNIS – With unemployed members of the leisure and hospitality industry representing more than one third of all unemployed people in the United States, an effort is underway to provide help.
The effort is being led by the American Hotel and Lodging Association and UNITE HERE, a hospitality workers union.
The organizations are calling on Congress to pass the Save Hotel Jobs Act, which would create a new grant program to boost the industry.
It would focus on providing direct payroll grants to supplement payroll and benefits and providing a Personal Protective Equipment Tax Credit to ensure a safe work environment.
However, some areas of the industry may take longer to recover, including places where many hotels or lodgings have been shut down.
In New York City, almost 200 hotels closed due to a lack of visitors in the area, and those hotels are not expected to reopen.
It is estimated that business travel, the type of travel that earns hotels the most revenue, will not return to pre-COVID levels until 2024.
The act is hoped to prevent further hotel closures and put the industry on the path to recovery.
Maura MacDonald, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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