The dreaded COVID-19 pandemic has brought about 3 national Lockdowns which has caused their economic output to decrease by 90 % from 2019 and a loss of more than 147,000 jobs. The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors of the pandemic. National restrictions such as indoor seating being banned, restaurants can only do takeaways, the rule of 6 and social distancing made conducting business for the hospitality sector especially hard. Statistics show that between the date Feb 22 and March 7 2021, only 43 % of Hospitality businesses where able to trade through restrictions which seriously affected the economy due to rising unemployment and other factors such as a decrease in consumer spending.
However, the government have taken measures such as the furlough scheme which has meant the businesses could keep staff employed during the pandemic with the government paying 80% of the workers salary and the employers paying just 20%. Furthermore measures such as the eat out to help out scheme which increased business rapidly for the restaurants. However, it caused a surge COVID-19 cases which meant that new restrictions where imposed and then another lockdown occurred in December 2020.
The hospitality industry where looking for a profitable festive season during December 2021 but the surge of the omicron variant has meant otherwise. With daily cases rising past 100000 , there has been an adverse affect on businesses int he hospitality sector as less people are looking to go out. This has caused businesses to plead to the chancellor of the exchequer for a plan. Since then Rishi Sunk has come out with a £1 billion fund for restaurants and pubs. However, many businesses are complaining that it simply isn't enough as it means that pubs and restaurants will only be able to apply for cash grants of up to £6000 which is the equivalent of what some restaurants make in one night.
