Yahoo Finance Most people won’t be going back to the pub
Pubs and restaurants could face months of dire trading with less than a fifth of Britons planning to immediately return when they reopen.
Consumers ranked eating and drinking out as their highest priority activity after lockdown, but only two in five planned to return before August and less than a fifth immediately, according to new polling by RBC Capital Markets.
The bank’s survey also found that more than half of drinkers and diners expected to go less often than they did before Covid-19 struck, piling pressure on the struggling industry.
The majority of consumers are “desperate” to eat and drink out but there “is still a significant undertone of caution”, said Christine Zhou, an RBC analyst.
“Don’t expect a stampede: less than 20pc of our respondents intend to visit immediately upon reopening and 30pc have no plan to return before the end of the year.”
What pubs will look like with the new measures:
Business leaders criticised the Government for releasing track and trace guidance to hospitality firms just a day before their big reopenings. The likes of pubs and restaurants will need to take down customers’ contact details in a bid to stem virus outbreaks.
“The fact this is only being made available from the Thursday night beforehand provides the small business owner with just one day – Friday – to prepare,” said Craig Beaumont at the Federation of Small Businesses.
“We’ve got to learn from this if there is a second wave or local outbreaks – businesses need time to plan, ideally three to four weeks. Not one day.”
He said the numerous pages of guidance on track and trace released by the Government was “absolutely essential reading for any small business” reopening on Saturday.
RBC’s survey revealed that some 62pc of consumers said the top factor on where they eat and drink out will be based on the social distancing measures.
