Two thirds of hospitality businesses expect to remain closed for dine in until April

By BigHospitality

15-Jan-2021 - Last updated on 15-Jan-2021 at 09:22 GMT

Related tags: Coronavirus, lockdown, Lumina Intelligence, Restaurant, Public house

Two thirds of hospitality operators do not expect to open their venues for dine-in before April, beyond the Government’s initial mid-February prediction, according to the latest Lumina Intelligence Hospitality Leaders Poll.

While the vast majority of hospitality businesses polled expected to be closed for a minimum of three months for the start of 2021, 12% did expect to open before April, with a further 21% saying they were unsure.

Hospitality businesses have also show to be willing to offer their own sites for vaccine distribution, with 76% saying they would do so if it meant a quicker rollout and return to normality,

The Government’s one-off grant support of up to £9,000 is also inadequate for many in the sector according to the poll. While the majority of businesses (76%) consider it to be of ‘some help’ in helping them through lockdown, only 13% say the payment will help ‘significantly’, with 11% saying it is ‘no help at all’.

Meanwhile, most operators (59%) say the new ban on takeaway alcohol will not affect significantly their business in with 27% saying they were ‘somewhat affected’ and only 15% saying they were significantly affected’.

This week’s Lumina Intelligence Hospitality Leaders Poll figures are based on the views of 275 pub, restaurant and food-to-go businesses and have been produced exclusively for BigHospitality and MCA Report.