Glasgow Restaurants Association meets with the STA

The first of our many today [3 Nov] and calls today was with the Glasgow Restaurants Association to discuss how the new restrictions are impacting restaurants in the city. The STA also updated the group on the activity we’re delivering on behalf of the sector and the recent recommendations to governments that came from the Tourism Task Force.

Some of the issues faced by restaurateurs in Glasgow:
• The cost of city centre parking for customers
• Uncertainty on whether future bookings will need to be cancelled
• Consumer confidence
• The mental health of the sector
• The future of our supply chain
• How we recover
One business shared the news that they had opened yesterday and took just £84 when they would normally take more than £2000. We have heard so many similar stories from all businesses within our sector including one hotel that took £2000 last week rather than the usual £20,000 per day.

Businesses on the call also stated that they are in favour of lockdown and extended furlough measures as they simply can’t trade right now. Cities are ghost towns, there is no footfall, losses outweigh anything they can take, however this is manageable with the furlough scheme.