Credit: Kinepolis
In an interview with Chronicle.lu, Christophe Eyssartier, National Theatre Manager at Kinepolis Luxembourg, shared how Kinepolis cinemas in the Grand Duchy have been impacted by and adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as his vision for 2022.
Kinepolis Luxembourg cinemas were closed first from mid-March to mid-June 2020 and then again from mid-November 2020 to mid-January 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. During these periods of closure, Kinepolis Luxembourg and its staff benefited from partial unemployment. Christophe Eyssartier added: "As a vulnerable sector we were able to benefit, when the conditions were met, from the recovery fund or from the aid [for] uncovered costs".
In terms of staff retention during these challenging times, Mr Eyssartier explained: "We did not lay off anyone during the crisis. However, we have had more voluntary departures than in normal times". When asked about the need to bring in new staff and / or provide additional training to existing staff in response to the COVID-19 measures, he noted that "all teams have been trained in the specific measures in our complexes and we had to reinforce our teams with mainly temporary staff trained to equip the self-testing area, for example".
Discussing the impact of the latest COVID-19 measures in Luxembourg, Mr Eyssartier explained: "This adds constraints for both our teams and our customers. As the number of people who have had their booster is limited for the moment, a large part of the clients who wish to maintain their visit must do a self-test on the spot. Other people probably prefer to delay their visit for the same reasons".
Looking forward to the future and what 2022 has in store, Mr Eyssartier said: "Like everyone else, we are hoping for a return to a certain normality during the year. We are optimistic and tend to believe that the end of the tunnel is in sight".
