With entertainment over dinner banned, and further reduced capacity, the updated interpretation means that many of our food pubs, restaurants and hotels that opened just a matter of days ago, are left in limbo, officially allowed to open, but with a business model that is not financially viable.

Crying out for support

The latest blow comes at a time when traditional non-food serving pubs, which have been closed effectively since March, are crying out for support and need urgent financial aid to shore up bad debt to cover previous costs and outlay.

Colin Neill, Chief Executive, Hospitality Ulster said “We have been left in a position where many food pubs, restaurants and hotels are left with an unsustainable business model, but cannot afford to close.”

“We urgently need the Executive to allow hospitality businesses to opt for closure and qualify for financial assistance where it is simply unsustainable to open due to the current Covid regulations.”

 No escape in sight

“We are told that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but to the hospitality industry it’s more like a vertical mine shaft with no means of escape in sight.”

“Our industry, our businesses and our people are beyond breaking point, our non-food pubs have been virtually closed since March, the rest of the industry has seen repeated lockdown and unsustainable regulations – they have borne the full force of the economic cost of the crisis.”

 ‘The fall guy’

“There needs to be a proper and appropriate level of funding that creates real impact for those who have had to experience the full brunt of the government attempts at curtailing the virus. Our sector has been the fall guy and it simply isn’t fair. Traditional pub owners haven’t been open for the majority of the year, other hospitality businesses that have been open have endured lengthy lockdowns and more extensive restrictions than any other sector.”

“With another lockdown of the entire hospitality industry almost a certainty after Christmas, it is once again obvious that jobs and businesses in the hospitality industry are being sacrificed as a balance for the uncontrollable, in this instance to allow increased socialising in private houses over Christmas. It is therefore only fair that the people that work and run businesses in hospitality should be fairly compensated.”

 Comprehensive plan

“The Executive must also bring forward a comprehensive plan to support the hospitality industry through the continued period of closure and restrictions, with pathway to reopening, supported by targeted financial support and a business rates holiday for 2021.”

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Hospitality Ulster said that while those in the sector who can re-open were grateful for the support and trade, “it is important that we start to work ourselves away from repeated lockdowns and restrictions which can be helped if everyone plays their part.”

The sector has invested thousands of pounds per business in being covid secure and has had very little chance to reclaim any of those additional costs back. Many are operating in the red after cash reserves have been drained and huge amounts of staff have been laid off. Many will struggle to even open this weekend. It is a very difficult environment to trade in and any money that is made will only be used to offset debt that has been accumulated over months.

Emergency financial assistance

Hospitality Ulster has also reiterated the call to the NI Executive to ensure that the small amount of emergency financial assistance offered to date gets to those who need it and that it also must consider that this pre-christmas trading period sustains many in the sector into the New Year and that that aid needs to be significantly increased.

Colin Neill, Chief Executive, Hospitality Ulster said “This has been one of the cruellest years in a generation for the sector. We’ve never experienced anything like this before and we want to make sure that we can move away from the repeated lockdowns and restrictions as quickly as we can.”

 Abide by the rules

“We need everyone to help. Business owners who have invested so much time, effort and money to get reopened want people to have a good time, but we need everyone to abide by the rules. We’d also like to ask people to be kind to staff who are there to provide that quality experience but also to keep everyone as safe as they can be. That includes listening to their instructions, providing details for tack and trace and being covid compliant.”

“We still need to see a reopening date for our traditional non-food pubs which are a vital part of our overall hospitality offer here. It was devastating to see this week that some of our best known bars have taken the decision not to reopen until the new year. That’s a difficult thing to come to terms with, especially at this part of the year and really goes to show how hard this virus has hit us all in the industry.”

 Traditional non-food pubs

“Without a reopening date in sight for the traditional non-food pubs and for those who decide that they cannot open sustainably under the stringent restrictions we need to see the urgent financial assistance get to them. It’s nowhere near enough and we are asking that the Executive works with the industry to understand that emergency financial assistance must recognise that in ‘normal times’ a third of the annual profit is made in the Christmas period which sustains many in the leaner periods through the year. We really appreciate the financial support given, but the reality is a couple of hundred quid here and there isn’t cutting it and only plugging small gaps from previous debt.”

“We also have to remember that the impact this stop start situation is having on the food and drink supply chain which supports the hospitality sector. Multi-million pound losses are being incurred as fresh food perishes and drink has to be poured down the drain as it’s not clear about next steps until relatively late in the day. The sector itself and the supply chain needs certainty.”

New restrictions

New restrictions for anyone visiting a food pub, restaurant, hotel, coffee shop, cage etc. include:

• Maximum table size 6 persons
• Only 2 households per table
• Everyone must provide their name and contact details
• Everyone must wear a face covering when not seated (medical and age exemptions apply)

So called ‘wet pubs’ are to remain closed. Even the terminology is under question. One pub owner told BBC Good Morning Ulster “We need to stop using this term ‘wet pubs’ – it’s derogatory. The term should be traditional non-food pub.” He went on to describe the financial impact on his business – a cost of £1,200 a week just to stay closed, draining reserves and scuppering resources.

‘Covid Cops’

It was also announced that ‘Covid Ambassadors’ or ‘Covid Cops’ as they’ve been dubbed, will patrol Belfast City Centre advising and reminding people of the restrictions, and if necessary issue penalties.

Fridays throughout December would ‘normally’ be among the busiest days in the hospitality calendar as offices and work places celebrate their annual Christmas night out. Not this year.

Some popular Belfast’s pubs took to Twitter to tell their customers they would not be open until next year. The doors of the Sunflower, Kelly’s Cellars, John Hewitt, The Limelight, Pavillion and Lavery’s will stay shut.

Clearly frustrated

On Thursday morning, a frustrated Mourne Seafood Bar tweeted ‘We reopen in 27 hours and the regulations around this still haven’t been published. I find that incredible.’

A number of hospitality businesses in Omagh have decided NOT to open on Friday when restrictions are lifted. The Blind Cobbler says it is ‘not possible to safely deliver’ a true experience. Other premises in the Omagh area are also remaining closed over Christmas.

In Ballymena, the Adair Arms was preparing for a different type of Christmas experience, while popular restaurant and pub The Grouse was also preparing for a different type of Christmas season.

‘Static and permanent’

The regulations, which came into force just before midnight on Thursday 10^th December 2020 state that any food served must have been prepared “in a static and permanent kitchen on the premises of the bar, hotel, pub or club and which is eaten by a person seated at a table”.

Every person who visits hospitality must provide their name and telephone number.

These restrictions will partially ease on 23 December for five days over the Christmas period.

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It’s now more than three months since a coronavirus pandemic forced the world into lockdown, stealing away the livelihoods of pubs, restaurants, hotels and visitor attractions everywhere in one cruel stroke.

In the days since, more than 43,000 people in the UK alone have fallen victim to the virus and each one of us has become accustomed to new and more restrictive ways of living and working with each other.

For hospitality and tourism, however, the long wait is over. Most bars, restaurants and hotels can reopen from today (July 3), albeit under a strict new regime.

Service inside bars will now be for seated customers only, with alcohol only available alongside food orders. Drinks can be only be sold without food in an outdoors setting and only if the venue has enough space to properly implement the new one-metre social distancing rule.

The same restrictions will apply to bar and restaurant facilities inside hotels when they re-open to guests on Friday while events, wedding ceremonies, leisure facilities and alcohol-only sales will continue to be curtailed.

Speaking to Licensed & Catering News this week, NI Hotels Federation chief executive, Janice Gault, said that she believed around 70 per cent of Northern Ireland’s hotel sector was prepared to re-open its doors on July 3:

‘Our members are pleased and relieved to be going back to work, but understandably, they are also a little anxious,’ said Janice. ‘We are prepared and we’re ready to rebuild, but the biggest challenge will be to ensure that our customers have a hotel and hospitality experience and not a hospital experience. We want them to feel reassured, but we don’t want them to feel that they are about to be sanitised themselves at any moment.’

Janice acknowledged that many accommodation providers in Northern Ireland had been forced to dip heavily into their reserves over the lockdown period and many of them were now ‘running on empty’. She also said that many operators had taken on additional borrowing in order to get through and that the Federation was working on the assumption that most would spend the next year ‘trading for survival’ before any hope of a return to growth.

In terms of those elements of the hotel sector which remain restricted, Janice is hopeful of ‘some small resolution’, but she remains pessimistic about a speedy return to normal business:

‘Certainly, events are proving to be challenging, particularly where alcohol is involved,’ she said. ‘But we do feel that with time, and if people begin to feel more reassured, there may be an opportunity to bring events back at a certain level.’

And highlighting the wedding market as ‘particularly challenging’, Janice added:

‘We hope to see some movement here soon, but we are concerned that it won’t be enough. The wedding market in NI is going to be challenged by this for a considerable period of time.’

People’s willingness to return to Northern Ireland’s pubs and restaurants will undoubtedly be seen as the litmus test of success for Friday’s re-opening of the hospitality sector.

Speaking on July 1, Hospitality Ulster chief, Colin Neill said that it was difficult to gauge just how many premises would return to trading right away. Some pubs won’t be able to re-open because they don’t offer food, while others don’t have the facilities to properly implement the one-metre distancing rule.

Colin told this magazine:

‘There are also premises that will definitely never re-open and we won’t know which these are until a few weeks in. Regrettably, no matter what we do, there are going to be job losses and closures. At 70 per cent turnover, you start to break even, but if social distancing doesn’t allow that level of trade, then you’re going to see those businesses go broke.’

Colin said that while there was relief across the trade at the prospect of a resumption of business, there was a degree of concern and an acknowledgement of the responsibility that rests with the industry to protect its customers and staff from the virus.

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It’s been customary for many years for Colin Neill to update Yearbook readers around annual progress on those issues of most concern to operators in the hospitality and tourism sectors.

This year, however, in the continued absence of a functioning NI Assembly and in the face of Brexit’s paralysing influence, there was little in the way of developments for the Hospitality Ulster chief to report.

Oddly enough, the sector is currently enjoying conditions that just a few years ago might have been considered Utopian – soaring visitor numbers are driving strong growth in tourism and the hotel sector is experiencing unprecedented growth.

All of this, however, is viewed through the prism of the national obsession with Brexit and amidst the stagnant morass of NI politics, there is little room for optimism in business circles.

It’s a dispiriting situation and one that was nowhere on the horizon as recently as 2016 when, during his annual catch-up, Colin reported that things were ‘on the up’, albeit a patchy, Belfast-centric renaissance.

Today, Colin says that frustration among his members is inevitably turning to apathy:

‘People have just come to the conclusion that it’s all a waste of time. There is no government and that’s it, people are losing interest,” he reports.

Colin and his team have spent much of the last 12 months at Westminster. They’ve been building relationships and continuing to make the case for changes around tourism VAT, air passenger duty and business rates – all areas where slow progress was being made before the collapse of local government.

‘2018 was frustrating for the trade and disappointing for us because of all the work and effort that had been put in on so many fronts,’ says Colin.

Relationships with local parties have also been maintained so that pressing issues can be kept at the top of the agenda. However, Colin warns that if the Assembly is restored then it cannot simply continue on where it left off:

‘Government needs to work differently,’ he says. ‘It needs to be more progressive, we need to see modern licensing laws for business because tourism is now our only growth market and to continue to grow, it needs to be equipped to cater for the different products and offerings that there are. And we cannot continue to tax our premises to death. Our business rates are killing us.’

Colin pointed out that in England, business premises with an NAV of £51,000 were getting rates relief of 30 per cent, while premises with an NAV of £12,000 or less paid no business rates at all:

‘In NI, we get a miserly 20 per cent if we have premises with an NAV of £18,000 or more but if it comes to it, this is something that NI actually needs more because we have less disposable income here than they do in GB.’

Going forward, Colin says that 2019 must be the year in which government returns to Northern Ireland. It must be an administration that acknowledges the value of hospitality, he says, and its vital role in developing tourism as a key economic driver.

‘I hope that we’re able to get a government back, one that delivers on the key issues that that we can create an environment in which we can sustain and grow our businesses,’ he adds. ‘I travel in hope. We have to remain optimistic that the Assembly will come back and we have to be prepared to move forward the second that it does.”

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