"The unexpected situation and turnover that declined overnight is unprecedented for us. We tried to avoid collective redundancies until the last minute, but it is now clear that tourism will not recover as quickly as we hoped and it is not possible to keep all of the current workforce on hold," chief executive of the group Kaisa Mailend said via a press release.

The group owns nine hotels altogether. Six of the group's Estonian hotels are located in Tallinn, one in Laulasmaa and two hotels are located in Riga. Despite the emergency situation, Hestia Hotel Europa and Hestia Hotel Susi in Tallinn have remained open. On May 1, Hestia Hotel Laulasmaa Spa reopened its doors to offer limited services.

"The exit strategies of Estonia and nearby markets signal that the recovery of tourism sector is going to be slow and postponed indefinitely, which is why we have to take a critical look at our action plans both in Estonia and Latvia," she added.

In total, over 230 employees are to be made redundant in Estonia and Latvia. Collective redundancies have also been announced by Astlanda or Radisson Blu Sky Hotel, who submitted a redundancy notice for 98 jobs, Swissotel plans to lay off 83 people, Nordic Hotels 80 and the Meriton 70.

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