NH hospitality industry tells state panel it needs $1 billion in support

By: Bob Sanders, NH Business Review 

Representatives of New Hampshire’s hospitality industry told state officials Wednesday it might need $1 billion to survive the coronavirus crisis.
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New Hampshire has received $1.25 billion from the federal government to address the economic and health needs of the state. Last week that seemed like a lot of money. Now it looks as if the full pot of funding could be stretched very thin, especially since healthcare providers on Monday testified that it alone was hemorrhaging $200 million a month.

The legislature’s advisory committee to the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery also heard Wednesday from representatives of other economic sectors – retailers, auto dealers, contractors and manufacturers. But none seemed in as bad shape as the hospitality industry, and none put a price tag on its needs.

The coronavirus pandemic has been “catastrophic,” said Mike Somers, president of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association, who estimated a loss of 40,000 to 60,000 jobs. Somers himself didn’t make the ask. He left that to two representatives of his trade association, Tom Boucher, owner and CEO of Great NH Restaurants and Steve Duprey, president of Foxfire Property Management and The Duprey Companies, a developer and operator of hotels, to fill in the numbers and make the ask.

Click here to read the full article on NHBR.com.