From the General Manager IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER
Let’s Hope This is it! 10 February 2022 saw the first meaningful move to restore trading conditions for hospitality. The long-awaited return to stand-up consumption was made available for outside activities and combined with an early increase in internal capacities to 50% (or one person in two square metres), business opportunity was on the way back. This came after five weeks of debilitating restrictions based around no more than 25%, or one in four, and no stand-up consumption. The “abundance of caution” applied in South Australia has had a profound negative impact on all hospitality businesses and increasingly operators are sceptical about the “health advice” that supports such severe restrictions. To that end the AHA|SA has again commissioned a study by the SA Centre of Economic Studies at the University of Adelaide as to the cost to our sector of such severe trading conditions. Previous studies into the November 2020, three-day and July 2021 seven-day lockdowns suggested collectives losses well in excess of $100M on both occasions. We anticipate similar numbers over an extended period.
6 | Hotel SA | W W W . A H A S A . A S N . A U
So, what are the next restrictions to be lifted? Well, obviously it’s the internal capacity and the ability to stand up to consume. Our first priority is to restore stand-up, even at 50%, and to also see the internal capacity increased to at least 75%.
“The “abundance of caution” applied in South Australia has had a profound negative impact on all hospitality businesses...” Dancing is a priority. Dancing and live music go hand-inhand and it still staggers me that the government that has screamed from the roof tops that we are a UNESCO city of music, has done so little to help musicians, bands, promotors, technicians and venues. All these lifting of restrictions relies on the State maintaining a steady reduction in COVID-19 cases.
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