The consulting firm Fidelity Consulting has predicted that companies in the hotel and tourism sectors will suffer a serious blow as a result of the coronavirus crisis and there will inevitably be spillover into the public sphere. Fidelity looked at two scenarios for 2020, the first being that the state would collect just 70 percent of the VAT and excise tax revenues that it brought it in 2019. This would represent a €230m hit to total revenues. But the second scenario Fidelity considered was even darker, with the state bringing in just half of last year’s revenues, creating a budgetary hole of €274m. The sector produced revenues of €291.5m in 2018, of which 25 percent went to salaries, writes Fidelity. Montenegro’s central bank has estimated that if the crisis were to last for 60 days, the companies would take a 90 percent hit on revenues, or just €29.2m. “Translated into plain language: this industry will be torn apart in 2020.”
