It’s been just over a week since restaurants and cafes were able to reopen and thus far business seems to have been good.
Walking through the streets of Valletta and Sliema, one could see diners sitting at tables again, giving a sense of liveliness to the island.
The President of the Malta hotels and Restaurants Association Tony Zahra said that, while “we expected a good response, the overall response was even better than we were expecting,"
This is, most definitely, good news for the sector. Many restaurants were struggling to make ends meet, even with the increase in demand for take-aways and food deliveries. This news also shows that the people were more than ready to resume dining out as soon as restrictions were eased.
The way the health authorities are handling the relaxation of measures also seems quite positive. Taking the cautious, gradual approach will mean that, should numbers spike, they will be able to repeal those measures which caused it quite quickly.
Indeed the next step is for restaurant physical opening hours to be extended past 5pm. Some restaurants have not really benefitted from the current reopening as they are focused on dinner-time dining. Hopefully they too will have a good start to business once that measure relaxes on 24 May.
The next date to mark after that will be the 1st of June, when the country starts opening up for tourism. Indeed Malta will need to be careful here, as this will be a risky time.
Asked whether he thinks restaurants will do quite well this year if they continue along the same lines of the past week, Zahra said that "quite well is a very subjective term. Don't forget they had been closed for around many weeks. It is not easy to make up lost ground and the number of tourists Malta is expecting to come between June and December is, at best, 60% of what we had during that period in 2019."
It will not be an easy road for restaurateurs, nor will it be an easy road for hoteliers. At the same time, if numbers spike (and hopefully they won’t due to the vaccines), it is likely that these sectors will both suffer. While the first week went better than expected, it does not mean that things are back to normal. Far from it and they will have a lot to do to make up for their losses.
The support for these businesses coming from the government has been essential for their survival, and this support must continue to flow, at least until things stabilise more. Restaurants, after all, have a lot of overheads and it does not just come down to wages
We are not yet out of the pandemic and certain restrictions, such as the distancing between tables is likely to remain for a while. That is one thing that will definitely continue to impact restaurants, but it is, nonetheless, essential for the protection of the health of patrons.
We must all remember to continue doing our part and abiding by the measures and guidelines that are in place.