Hospitality pleads for support as cancellations surge

TYRONE restaurateurs fear they could be “decimated” if financial support isn’t provided to help in an increasingly dismal festive season for the industry.

Increasing fears over the Omicron variant and its accompanied public health message to limit socialising has led to cancelled bookings across many venues.

Darren McCrossan, owner of the Millstone restaurant near Omagh, said his business has had 400 cancellations along with another 100 ‘no-shows’ in the last few weeks.

“It’s detrimental given the time of year we’re in. Christmas time usually sees us through the quieter months of January and February. We can’t even make plans for the new year because we don’t know what’s coming,” he told the Tyrone Herald.

Mr McCrossan, continued, “[The Executive] are going to have to step in and do something or else there is going to be mass unemployment. I think we will be okay, but there are a lot of other businesses that won’t be able to weather this.”

The restaurant owner also fears what more restrictions could mean in an already difficult recruitment environment.

He said, “Staff are going to leave the industry altogether. People want to work and earn money, they don’t want to be lying in the house.”

Sheelagh McGeary, the manageress of Ellie’s in Dungannon has described similarly “bleak times”.

Speaking on Friday, she said, “There have been a lot of cancellations, 70 tonight alone. This should be our busiest weekend in the year, and it’s not. I’m cancelling staff and sending them home, it’s just terrible.”

As well as rising fears surrounding the Omicron variant, Ms McGeary criticised the Covid certification scheme for driving away customers.

“The café next door could serve breakfast this morning without requiring a Covid pass where we couldn’t because we have a license – even though alcohol can’t be served before 11.30am anyway,” she explained.

While Ms McGeary questioned the need for the scheme at all, she says if it is going to stay, it should be applied equally across the hospitality sector instead of singling out licensed premises.

“We feel like nobody cares and that’s the way we’ve felt since day one. The electricity, water and heating bills keep coming; we have to keep the fryers and cookers on regardless of whether people are in here or not,” she added.

Following their announcement of fresh restrictions from Boxing Day, the Welsh devolved administration announced a £60 million fund to assist the hospitality sector in Wales.

When asked if a similar package of funding would be made available in the North, a spokesperson at the Department for the Economy said, “It is for the Executive to decide on any future funding.”