Hotelier Rocco Forte accuses Government of putting 'nail in coffin' of tourist industry with quarantine and two metre rule
Tory donor and hotelier Sir Rocco Forte has accused Boris Johnson of putting “another nail in the coffin” of the tourist industry with the two metre social distancing rule and 14-day quarantine.
Sir Rocco, who gave £100,000 to Mr Johnson’s 2019 election campaign, said “many, many” tourist businesses “will go under” this summer, yet the Government had introduced quarantine “just when there was a chance to save something out of the Summer season.”
“It’s another nail in the coffin,” he added.
He said the two-metre rule had been plucked “out of the blue” but made it “impossible for people to open properly.”
“There’s no scientific evidence behind it,” said Sir Rocco, who is one of more than 500 travel, hospitality and hotel bosses who have formed a group Quash Quarantine to campaign against the Government’s restrictions.
“The World Health Organisation (WHo) has just come and said that if you are two metres, you have a one per cent chance of catching the disease. If you are one metre you have a three per cent chance of catching the disease.
“The reality in continental Europe that has started to open up is that they have gone back to one metre. So the reality of this whole thing is that no one is concentrating on the economic impacts of this.”
Although he is reopening Forte hotels across Europe, they remain closed in the UK and are likely to continue so until the two metre rule is abandoned.
“It’s still difficult but one metre makes it possible,” said Sir Rocco, who paid for a victory party for Boris Johnson in one of his hotels when he won the Tory leadership election.
“The tourism industry has suffered disproportionately. It has been without income since March and will continue to be without income in this country until July so that’s four months, a third of a year. Many, many businesses in the tourist industry will go under.”
“We are talking about thousands of people’s livelihoods here. We are talking about millions of people who are going to lose their jobs and their families. It will affect their health and everything else.”
He said quarantine also had “no scientific evidence behind it.” “The chief scientific officer says it’s a political decision, not a scientific decision. We are closing down when the rest of Europe is opening up.
“Until Sunday, you could come from Iran or Brazil, the two highest hotbeds of the disease with impunity. All of a sudden on Sunday evening, no-one could come in.”
He warned it would affect businesses across the UK that needed foreign visitors. “What about the resorts [in Britain] which depend entirely on the summer seasons. Those people are not going to be able to function, they are not going to be able to survive.
“They have had another winter. They are going into another winter. The summer that should have lifted them up is not going to be there. All those businesses are going to be devastated and all the jobs that go with them.”
Sir Rocco established Rocco Forte Hotels in 1996 with his sister, Olga Polizzi. They have 14 hotels located in European cities.
