Outdoor dining could help recovery
A return to town centre, outdoor market-style activity could help businesses in regional New Zealand regroup now Covid-19 is here to stay.
First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said town centres’ outdoor setting offered a higher level of safety for businesses and consumers against the Delta variant.
Hospitality and restaurant operators sharing outdoor spaces might also be able to share the burden of checking customers’ vaccine passes, when the new traffic light system comes into force. Town centres were also places where people gathered to meet and that social interaction would be crucial to keep our mental health on track.
Wilkinson presented on the status of regional business via an audio-visual presentation to the Waipā District Council this month.
He had recently returned from visiting Manawatu, Whanganui and Kapiti Coast regions to see how businesses there were coping as the virus moved further down the North Island.
‘‘The bigger picture here for regional New Zealand is that the anchor of our town centres is the hospitality sector,’’ he said in an interview after the presentation. Restaurants and cafes, that is what brings people into town and helps drive the success of other businesses around them.
‘‘We need to make sure there is priority going into creating a town centre that is safe for our hospitality sector. That involves outdoor settings where businesses can get the scale they need to survive and consumers can be assured of a safe environment’’.
Wilkinson said councils needed to think about waiving outdoor dining permits to provide an easier way for hospitality to host customers in public spaces.
‘‘Cambridge’s retail and hospitality sector has been buoyed by the drive market, it is seen as an escapist destination that has captivated people from Auckland. Without that Auckland drive market,
Cambridge has really been affected.
‘‘Te Awamutu has a higher degree of resilience because it has a rural backbone and strong dairy prices have helped it.’’
Encouraging more people to shop local and grabbing a slice of the drive market from Tauranga would help replace the loss of Auckland visitors. People need to think, can I purchase this product locally? If everyone thought longer about using local businesses that would make a massive difference for all provincial towns.’’