Irish restaurants see 80% drop in corporate bookings amidst coronavirus spread
Restaurants in Ireland have seen a dramatic fall-off in corporate bookings due to the impact of COVID-19 as large companies and multinationals based in Ireland issue bans on staff travel and meetings.
Mike Ryan who runs five restaurants in Limerick and Cork told the Irish Examiner they have seen an 80% drop in corporate bookings in recent days.
"The corporate sector already has a no-fly rule in place and because Cork is already a hub for multinationals such as Pfizer or Apple so we have seen a huge drop off in businesses," he said.
Mr Ryan’’s restaurants include the Cornstore and Coqbull and said this week alone they have lost two bookings for groups of 45 people, one for a group of 30 and two more for groups of 15.
"It is same all over the country. You have big companies like Google in Dublin and it is the same there. The government is going to have to help stimulate the hospitality sector."
"Once confidence drops, the hospitality sector is the first thing to get hit. It’s a pretty dramatic drop off in the space of two weeks," Mr Ryan said.
Any business that works off cashflow there is only a short period of time that it can be sustained if there is a disruption.
His comments have been echoed by the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) who wants the Government to take immediate action to support the tourism and hospitality sector by cutting the Vat rate and employer PRSI.
Mr Ryan said they fear the drop off will spread to domestic customers and that restaurants will struggle further if staff are unable to come to work if they must be isolated.
"Domestically, we are still ok, with casual walk-ins but this might very well change," he said.
