Hospitality businesses

With a ban on non- essential movement in and out of Dundee, as well as one on the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants, hospitality businesses are braced for cancellations.

Manny Baber, who is general manager of Sleeperz Hotel in Dundee city centre and chairman of Dundee and Angus Visitor Accommoda t ion Association, believes hospitality businesses had coped well by offering safe environments since reopening, so sees Level 3 restrictions as tough on the city.

“Clearly, a Tier 3 local lockdown creates challenging conditions for any hospitality business to trade under – especially following a period of closure and inactivity for hoteliers from late March to July,” he said.

“Since hotels were allowed to reopen, the hospitality industry has proven itself to be amongst the most adept at providing a Covid-19 secure environment and creating safe and responsible conditions where people can enjoy overnight stays, food, drink and socialising.

“We recognise the seriousness of this pandemic and the need to prioritise public health but we h av e also lobbied government to properly differentiate between the kinds of hospitality businesses and their respective risk, instead of throwing a one-size-fits-all blanket of restrictions across the entire sector.

“There is a world of difference between a socially- distanced hotel lounge bar, with table service, and a busy city centre pub.

“It’s difficult to attract visitors to stay overnight and spend time in a city that cannot serve alcohol in cafés, bars and restaurants. This will result in fewer visitors and less spend in the local economy.

“From July to September, we saw green shoots of recovery in the warmer months, as the national pic ture stabilised, but moving into winter and autumn – we now face losing the traditional Christmas party season, hotel stays driven by music events, gigs and nightlife and most likely Hogmanay celebrations.”

Santanu Roy, who runs the Ta y v i ew Ho t e l in Dundee with his co-owner Devendra Nath, invested heavily in a beer garden in the hope of being able to continue to serve alcohol during the pandemic.

“Everything is wasted as we can’t even serve alcohol outside now,” he said.

“It’s really, really hard and obviously in the hotel we have the rooms, but we are not getting any guests at all, because of the economy and also because people are scared.

“They are not travelling to other cities and now, on the top of that, we are not getting enough support from the government.

“We have a hotel, bar and Indian restaurant, but when Nicola Sturgeon announced that you could open from six o’clock in the morning until six in the evening, who will go to have an Indian meal in the morning?

“It makes no sense at all. I feel bad when I see my customers coming in at half five or quarter past five trying to support me, but I have to say to them ‘you have to go out at six o’clock’. You can’t enjoy the food.”

He believes that the government should have adopted an 8pm closure, which would at least give people an opportunity to eat out.

Paul Waterson , spokesman for the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said the new tiers were already causing “confusion and distress”.

He said: “The situation couldn’t get any worse and we are fielding calls from members who simply can’t take any more of this. They are deeply worried about the future.

“It will cause u tt e r devastation for industry owners, operators and staff who will spend this weekend wondering if their businesses are going to be viable, if they are going to still have jobs and, indeed, if they will even still have a business.

“We are relieved that no local authority has been put into Level 4 restrictions but be very clear, even those in Level 1 do not escape hardship as many businesses have not been able to open because it is just not viable.

“The future is equally grim for nightclubs and other late- night venues across the country.

“Like everyone else, we want our staff, families, friends, neighbours and colleagues to be safe.

“But there must be nuance and realistic limits, not misguided restrictions like these, which are extremely unbalanced and do not appear to be borne out of any evidence that we have seen.

“The time has come for proper, grown-up dialogue and we appeal to the first minister and the Scottish Government to listen to us and help save our industry – it’s that serious.”

Marc Crothall of the Scottish Tourism Alliance voiced the i n d u s t r y ’s dismay.

He said: “We are now at a point where many hundreds of businesses simply do not have the income or funding support to remain solvent.

“Businesses in Tier 2 areas had hoped for an upturn in business following the slight ease of restrictions as the majority of custom in Tier 2 would have been likely to come from the central belt area, however due to the new travel restrictions, this will not be possible.

“It is absolutely critical now that all tourism and h o s p i t a l i ty businesses impacted by these restrictions, in whatever tier the y are in, have immediate access to a strengthened package of support from the Scottish Government to enable them to meet their overheads and retain what staff they had hoped to keep on their payroll over the coming weeks and beyond to avoid permanent closure and a significant wave of redundancies.”

The situation couldn’t get any worse