Covid-19 State Aid in the European Tourism Sector

The tourism sector has been deeply affected by covid-19 due to traveling restrictions to prevent virus diffusion and the consequent prudence of people. The impact on the sector has been pervasive and mined the going concern of a lot of activities, such as hotels, tour operators, museums, spas, beaches, and many others. States, stimulated by the European Union, has introduced economic subsidies and liquidity supports with the aim to face the economic crisis of the sector, mitigating the risk of insolvency and bankruptcy. National governments had the power to choose the tools to face the pandemic: accounts receivable, government guarantees on loans, capital grants, tax relief, etc. The mix of these policies, together with the ability of the different Countries to optimize the efficiency and the effectiveness of such instruments, has enabled the crisis to be tackled from Country to Country. With the aim to evaluate the performance of the policy mix stimulated by the European Union and adopted by the States, aneconomic and financial analysis has been carried out, using the methodology of ratios. The investigation concerns the touristic sector and investigates the balance sheet of all the European hotels and accommodation structures, for the years 2019 and 2020. Already in 2019, data show a varied scenario among European Countries, while, as expected, a generalized worsening occurs, in 2020. The ratio analysis highlighted the ability ofState aid actions to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis on the sector.