The Formula 1 GP São Paulo, the football stadiums full of fans and the return of events with large audiences brought encouragement for everyone who could no longer stand the impossibility of experiencing in-person experiences. A hope for the entire events industry, weakened by nearly two years of suspended activities.
The market began to experience an almost euphoria, including difficulties in regrouping its human resources, with many professionals having switched to other activities, for the sake of survival.
And behold, in the midst of this framework of renewed hopes, the so-called Ômicron appears.
With the new strain, speculation returns: it is more contagious, but less serious; increase the restriction on the entry of foreigners, mainly Africans; postpone the decision to release masks; to cancel public New Year’s Eve parties; and Carnival, is it possible to release it?
The side effect of this new wave could be disastrous for the events industry, which, after nearly two years of turmoil, is already quite heated, in 2021, and having an optimistic perspective in relation to 2022.
Of course, you can’t let your guard down. Any and all threats of resurgence of the pandemic must be the object of careful attention and prevention.
But it is also necessary to be calm and not take untimely measures, exaggerating the dose of care and limitations.
What seems to be shaping up is that such Ômicron, despite being more contagious, causes milder and more controllable effects, especially among vaccinated individuals.
The curve of deaths and contamination in Brazil continues its slow but consistent fall. Despite the initial delay, Brazil made up for lost time and has high rates of vaccinated people, which apparently could generate a protective barrier against the new variant.
Therefore, we must be very calm at this time. Let us be alert and ready for containment measures, but let us not be too hasty. We are not going to prematurely trigger a new lockdown of events, which could be fatal for this fragile industry.
No to veto 19/2021 In the middle of the most probationary period for the events industry, the market mobilized and the sector associations, led by Abrape, achieved an exceptional feat with the approval of Perse – Emergency Recovery Program for the Industry of Events.
PL 5638/2020 was approved in unanimous votes in the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate.
However, despite the federal government’s public commitment to create a new program meeting the vetoed points in Perse, especially with regard to tax relief, this initiative did not prosper after the government’s own retrograde denial (even at a time when the tax relief strategy in other sectors it reaches the mark of BRL 310 billion annually, compared to a demand for temporary relief, which will reach a maximum of BRL 5 billion, to the sector most economically affected by the pandemic).
At the time of writing this article, Congress may be voting on veto 19/2021, which involves the following points: Article 4 – Fiscal exemption for recovery of margin in the resumption of activities; Art. 5 – Creation of new sources of funds to comply with the provisions of the program; Article 6 – Indemnity based on payroll expenses to those who had more than 50% reduction in revenue, extending their arms to those who employed them even in the collapse; Art. 19 – Allocate 3% of the proceeds from lottery collection to fulfill the program’s actions, complementing the sources of compensation.
The hope remains that Congress has sensitized itself once again and overthrows the veto.
The events sector needs the application of the approved measures to be able to recover and return to generating wealth and jobs throughout Brazil.
Alexis Thuller Pagliarini is the CEO of Ampro (Promotional Marketing Association) ([email protected])
