The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

medium. Like most other legislative documents, this new Regulation is no exception and have its pitfalls. By 14 April, the State Revenue Service has paid downtime benefits in the amount of 3.5 million euros to 13,093 employees of 2,350 enterprises, including 125,878 € to self-employed persons of all industries, which were affected by the current health crisis. The average amount of downtime benefit paid so far is 257.46 €, which is below the minimum monthly salary defined in the country, as of 1 January 2020, which is 430 €. The minimal amount paid is 4.60 €. In the meantime, downtime benefit, which is 700 €, is paid only to 4-6% of the total number of employees who are entitled to receive a downtime benefit. On 13 May, the Prime Minister of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš, publicly advised those working in the tourism sector (approx. 25,000) to reclassify and look for work in other sectors of the economy. To conclude, the tourism industry in Latvia accounts for 4.1% of GDP, its exports account for 4.5% of Latvia’s total exports and, together with related industries, the tourism sector provides 8.9% of jobs in Latvia – 935 tour operators and travel agents currently operate in Latvia. Their total turnover, in 2018, was more than 398 million euros, with 2688 people were employed at these companies. The tourism and travel sectors are in a desperate situation, still hoping for a real rescue plan from the Government, which will help to restart the economy after the crisis. If Latvia’s Government will not develop a rescue plan for the industry, there is a high possibility that the tourism industry’s enterprises will face massive bankruptcy. Representatives of the tourism industry will not want to reclassify but will relocate and work in favour of other countries’ taxes. Moreover, restaurant, hotel and other tourism business, in Latvia, employ a large number of young and talented people with excellent job prospects in Europe and not only.