Liverpool City Council has warned its hospitality and tourism sectors could lose out on nearly £1.5bn of business this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, while urging landlords to support affected tenants.
The sectors usually bring in around £3.3bn to the city’s economy. However, the council says this could drop to £1.8bn in 2020 if social distancing restrictions are not eased and the country suffers a second wave of Covid-19 cases.
Hospitality and tourism businesses are losing £30m per week as a result of lockdown restrictions, bringing the total amount of money lost so far to some £360m. More than 450 restaurants, bars and cafés in the city centre have stayed shut.
Chris Brown, a director at Marketing Liverpool, said the sectors are critical for the economy as 48% of all business rates in the city are paid for by hospitality, tourism and cultural businesses.
“That’s nearly half of all business rates,” he said. “That shows how important the sector is to Liverpool.”
Brown said landlords will be critical in helping these tenants get back to trading.
He said: “Businesses are not going to be able to reopen unless, fundamentally, they have support from their landlords, otherwise they will be taking out more in rent than they will be taking in in takings. It’s not a subject that is going to go away.”
He noted some have been supportive by offering concessions, but acknowledged that others have their own cash-flow problems and a lack of direct relief from the government.
To plot a pathway back to business, Brown said central government needs to establish clarity and guidance as to when and how the hospitality and tourism sectors can get back up and running.
Without this, Brown said the viability of opening businesses under current restrictions is “very questionable”, but the decision to reopen would be made easier if restrictions, such as the 2m social distancing rule, were eased.
“We have absolutely no guidelines from government about reopening hospitality at all. Businesses are not even able to handle any enquiries coming through because they don’t have any details to give confidence to the consumer,” he said.
“It will be extremely difficult for us to rebuild that sector and difficult for those businesses to survive in that sector if they continue to have to operate in this for any long-term period. It’s going to be immensely difficult for them.”
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