Operations

Pandemic triggering $95B revenue loss in European restaurant sector

December 2, 2020

After the COVID-19 lockdown in the first months of 2020, restaurants around the world began reopening in the second half of the year, but that's changed the fact that combined restaurant and accommodation revenues in Europe's three largest markets — Germany, France and the United Kingdom — will have plunged $95.7billion before the crisis is over.

With governments closing bars and restaurants amid the second wave of the pandemic, the much-expected holiday season, which usually adds up big profits for the restaurants, will bring new staggering losses for the entire industry, according to data from AksjeBloggen, a personal finance blog.

UK's accommodation and restaurant revenues to plunge by $43.8B in 2020

Measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus caused enormous losses for the U.K. restaurant industry. In March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the public to avoid bars and restaurants, though no ban was yet enforced, according to a press release from AksjeBloggen.

The year-over-year drop in seated diners in U.K. restaurants plunged by 52% on the first day and 82% by the second. Only a few days later, all restaurants were forced to close.

After almost three months of lockdown, restaurants in the United Kingdom were allowed to reopen July 4, providing that they followed strict hygiene conditions to prevent a second wave of the virus. A week later, the number of seated diners in U.K. restaurants was still down by 45%, but it gradually increased.

However, as the country reintroduced lockdown measures on Nov. 5, following an increase in the number of new COVID infection cases, the percentage of seated restaurant diners in the United Kingdom was almost 95% lower compared to last year's figures.

The Statista data also revealed that the revenue of the United Kingdom's accommodation and restaurant market, as the largest in Europe, is expected to plunge by almost 40% YoY to $74.5 billion in 2020. In the next two years, this figure is forecast to rise to $100.7 billion but is still 17.5 billion lower than 2019 figures.

The German accommodation and restaurant industry has also been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. The Statista COVID-19 Barometer 2020 data from June revealed that Germans changed their opinion about the restaurants drastically amid the pandemic. Almost 50% of respondents said that they planned to avoid bars, pubs, and restaurants even once the restrictions are lifted.

Statista found that the German market was expected to witness a 25% drop amid the COVID-19 crisis, with the revenues falling from $104.9bn in 2019 to $80bn in 2020.

The French accommodation and restaurant industry was also expected to witness a 25% revenue drop in 2020. In 2019, restaurants and bars in the country generated $117.8 billion in revenue. With thousands of caterers closing their businesses amid the COVID-19 lockdown, this figure was forecast to slump by $27 billion in 2020.

Statistics revealed that the French market is expected to fully recover in the next three years, however, with revenues rising to $125.3 billion by 2023.