Hospitality Leaders Poll: only 50% of operators plan to reopen on 4 July

With just eight days to go, only half of the hospitality industry plans to reopen on 4 July, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM.

Exactly 50% of respondents to this week’s poll said they would reopen on the 4 July after the date was confirmed on Tuesday by the PM, with 20% still unsure and 30% saying they would not reopen.

Meanwhile just 8% of the 331 respondents, all of whom are board level operators or founders, said they thought the government had handled the crisis well.

One operator said the governments “lack of foresight and apparent lurching to statements without involving relevant parties mean that for a solus operator their chances of a successful recovery from this pandemic is vastly reduced.”

Some 39% said the government’s handling of the coronavirus had been poor, though 58% said it had dealt with the situation as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

However, the typically buoyant hospitality industry is confident it will bounce back as time goes on.

Asked if they were confident for the future, 68% said they were either confident, quite confident or very confident.

However, the remainder – 32% – said they were not confident about the future, with one operator warning: “It’s going to be a very hard journey out of this.”