Bagan Sekinchan fishing village. Many fishing vessels here have small capacity, ineffective against changes in the fishing grounds. Photo: Hai Seng Huat wharf management agency. The small crane diligently carried each barrel of fish from the ship to the Hai Seng Huat wharf while the traders were busy choosing the right fish on the wet port floor. This sea trip was a big hit, especially for Indian mackerel. But with Chia Tian Seng, a 47-year-old fisherman in this area, there is still a worry in his heart. He and his three siblings, who worked together as fishermen, noticed that the weather was getting more and more unusual. With Seng’s seafaring profession, the weather will determine the effectiveness of each sailing trip. For 10 years of being directly in charge of a fishing boat, Seng has never seen an unusual wind and current like now. “Previously, in the main season, the wind and the water flow were usually very stable, now it is uncertain, very unpredictable, now it can hit like this, but it can also be empty,” said Seng. According to Seng, the changes in natural conditions also prevent the target from being caught. “In the past, the sea cases at the beginning of the year never had squid, it was only in the middle of the year, but from the Lunar New Year until now, my ship caught a few tons”. Seng’s brother, Mr. Hee, who is currently the chairman of the Fisheries and Fisheries Association of Sekinchan town (Sabak Bernam city, Selangor state) added that, for 2 years now, I have not understood why Indian mackerel is so much. Before fishermen hunt, it is rare, now every trip is available, so the price is not good. Fishermen He said that every trip to the ship owner complained that the team cost was too much. Vessels now often have to go farther and more winding than they can to see the flow of fish. According to experts, climate change is the agent that makes the marine profession change and more difficult. The waiting fish tanks were transferred to Hai Seng Huat jetty. Photo: Hai Seng Huat wharf management agency. Tee Kai Seng, a 27-year-old fisherman who has been in the ocean for 10 years, noticed that the fish were getting smaller and smaller, causing the boat to move more to get big fish. “Previously I earned at least 2,000 RM (about 11 million VND) to 3,000 RM, about this year no trip has been more than 2,000 RM,” he said. In addition, the traditional fishing area that Tee Kai Seng used to go to now has not many fish, making each voyage go further. The Malaysian government recently revised the law, extending the ban on fin net fishing from 5 to 8 nautical miles from the coast. In the narrow Malacca Strait, outside 8 nautical miles for fishing is very difficult due to the busy passage of ships on the world sea, and it is also easy to violate the anti-IUU fishing regulations when the Indonesian territorial waters are too near the. But Chia Tian Seng still emphasizes the factor of climate change that is making Malaysian fisheries more difficult. The former northeast or southwest winter time – from November to March of the following year and from May to September – is usually the time when the Malaysian fisherman is carrying fish. Climate change changes the fish seasons. “Sometimes going to the sea, the wind blows from all sides, so the fish can not be determined,” said Seng. “Sometimes 3-4 days in a row the wind blows in the southeast direction, suddenly it turns to the northeast, then changes again”, the fisherman who is now the owner of the Hong King Mooi fish bowl added. According to Mr. Mooi, the wind changes, the flow of fish is difficult to find, more dangerous than fishermen’s boats that are easily dangerous. The phenomenon started appearing in 2004, and has become more frequent more and more recently, according to fisherman Hee. Malaysia is one of the countries with a high rate of fish consumption in daily meals in the world. Some figures in 2016 show that a Malaysian eats 168g of fish per day. That same year, the Center for the Development of Southeast Asian Fisheries assessed the total marine fish catch in Malaysia was worth 2.5 million USD. Newer figures from the Malaysian Bureau of Statistics in 2018, the output of sea fishing reached 1.45 million tons, in 2019 it was 1.46 million tons.

Due to tight budgets in the Corona crisis, the Maritim hotel chain is forced to part with some of its locations. The company announced that it had to cope with a liquidity loss of 140 million euros during pandemic times. “Although we had high liquidity reserves before the pandemic, we now have to secure our survival through emergency hotel sales,” said the owner of the family business, Monika Gommolla. Maritim, with around 5,000 employees worldwide, has 40 hotels, 29 of them in Germany with 3,000 employees.

“It can not go on like this”

“The Maritim Hotel Group has been hit extremely hard by the pandemic,” said Gommolla. “The first lockdown already resulted in a loss of sales of almost 90 percent last year.” After a short recovery phase in the summer, since November 2020 there has been a 90 percent drop in sales at almost all Maritim hotel locations due to the bans on accommodation for tourist guests. State aid almost failed to materialize, and only two million euros have been paid out so far. “The situation for the hotel industry is very serious, it cannot go on like this,” complains Gommolla. State aid must also be paid out as quickly as possible for larger companies in the industry and owner-managed hotel groups such as Maritim. The hotel chain Centro, which in 2019 still had 60 hotels with 1200 employees, had to sell 13 locations last year.

“Bridging aids not sufficient”

Dirk Iserlohe, CEO of the financial holding company Honestis AG, emphasized that time was of the essence. The AG is the parent company of the Dorint hotel chain, whose supervisory board chairman Iserlohe is also. At a press conference in Cologne with nine hotel chains on the state of the industry in Germany, he presented a statement to politicians on Thursday. The main complaint is that the current financial support from politicians is inadequate. The state aid limits, which are twelve million euros, are nowhere near enough, according to Iserlohe. In 2020 alone, the uncovered loss was 30 million euros.

“No limitation of the reimbursement obligation”

For GSH Hotels, Marco El Manchi explained that sales fell by 60 percent in the past year. Most colleagues were still waiting for government grants, which were not enough anyway, says El Manchi. The Lindner hotel chain reported a drop in sales from 200 to 45 million euros. Managing director Otto Lindner, who is also Vice President of the Dehoga branch association, spoke of a “terrible situation”. The hotel operators’ equity reserves have been used up. “We are not the driver of the pandemic, so we are entitled to compensation.” The deputy chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, also took part in the press conference: “It’s about the survival of an entire industry. No area is more affected.” Therefore, there should be no limit to the obligation to reimburse costs.

Three quarters fewer overnight stays

The current data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on overnight stays also shows how deep the crisis is in this country: of the 51,000 accommodation establishments recorded in Germany, only 29,300 were open in February. In February 2021, there were 7.2 million overnight stays by domestic and foreign guests in the accommodation establishments in Germany. That is 76 percent fewer overnight stays than in the corresponding month of the previous year.