Decanter World Wine AwardsLondon Olympics 'absolutely disastrous' for restaurants
- Thursday 16 August 2012
And they fear business will not improve until mid-September, after the Paralympics are over, blaming the government for warning the public against travelling around London, and especially for advising office workers to stay home or take a holiday.
‘What is totally missing is our regular trade,’ said Richard Bradford, owner of Porters English restaurant in Covent Garden and chairman of the Restaurant Association.
He said revenue was down 70% (year-on-year) on the Friday of the opening ceremony; 60% the following day; and that it has not picked up significantly since.
‘This is usually a good time for us, but if you ask anyone, trade has been absolutely disastrous and now we have this strange period of 16 days between the Olympics and Paralympics. None of the normal business will be back until after that.’
A survey of 100 London restaurants, conducted by the British Hospitality Association, indicated an average decline of 40% in year-on-year revenue.
Neleen Strauss, owner of High Timber restaurant near St Paul’s Cathedral, called attention to the situation by hand-delivering an invoice for £90,000 in lost earnings to London Mayor Boris Johnson.
‘I loved the Olympics, and thought it was brilliantly run and hosted,’ she said, ‘but the scaremongering to keep people out of the city was overkill.’
Clare Lattin, co-owner of Ducksoup in Soho, was slightly more upbeat, saying tourists had compensated for some of the loss of local custom – though hardly the promised boom.
Have your say!
Soren Jessen
August 18 10:52
Olympics are great for many things but bad for business. Our Restaurant 1Lombard Street. Was hit very hard in July and August. 35% down year on year.
Depressing to see the offer of food around the sporting events was McDonalds and bad fish and chips. On top of that, hour long queues to buy food and drink.
Did yhe organiser not expect guests to get hungry or thirsty?
Dante Diaferia
August 17 12:52
I would blame TV coverage rather than people wanting to stay away.
From what I have heard, this was not only a problem in London
Bartholomew Broadbent
August 16 10:42
This is not surprising if anyone looks at the experience at other Olympics. I remember, prior to the Atlanta Games, all the restaurants stocked up on wine in anticipation of all the tourists eating out. In the end, they universally complained about the disastrous trade because the visitors were all interested in fast food and American things like hot dogs and burgers.
Andy Whiteman
August 16 09:37
Sure London restaurants have been hit but it's the same in Devon, when Tom Daley was diving our trade dived, on the opening night the same...might be an idea for you to take some soundings around the country rather than just poor old London...