‘This feels like a kick in the teeth’ – Cardiff hospitality and tourism businesses reeling

"This has been done to us, not with us." Cardiff restaurateur Phill Lewis is talking, as many across Wales’ hospitality industries have been since First Minister Mark Drakeford announced Monday morning that the country would enter a ‘firebreaker’ lockdown from Friday October 23, about what chance affected businesses now have to survive. And the outlook, as Phill sees it, is disastrous.

Mr Drakeford’s announcement was quick to mention that "all non-essential retail, leisure, hospitality and tourism businesses will close just as they had to during the March lockdown."

"Back when the March lockdown was announced, I gave the government the benefit of the doubt," Phill, who co-runs Cardiff’s popular pizza chain Dusty Knuckle, recalls. "It’s not like you or me could necessarily have done better. But in March the situation was unprecedented. Now we know lots more about the devastating effects on business a lockdown has and yet the government does not seem to have learned. There has been zero communication from them. During the last lockdown, the Welsh Independent Restaurant Collective [WIRC] was formed especially as someone the government could speak to so that we felt our voices were heard. But Monday’s statement is about reaction, not interaction. We were only prepared for today’s announcement at all because of a leaked document."

The document in question, a letter dated October 16 warning that Wales would go into lockdown this Friday, October 23, was first published last Saturday by political blog Bubble.Wales. It came on the back of Mr Drakeford having said the previous day no decision about introducing a lockdown had been made.

"During the last lockdown, which for us in hospitality and tourism lasted seven months, government employees have been on full pay," points out Paul Grimwood, who co-runs Spanish restaurant and bar Curado in Cardiff city centre. "Meanwhile we are being forced to constantly reinvent how we operate almost by the day. A restaurant is one of the safest places you can be in a pandemic – we have invested lots of money in providing those safety measures, for visitors’ wellbeing and to allow us to continue our livelihood. This feels like a kick in the teeth."

For Paul, one of the biggest concerns is the challenge of finding out what the official line is on how businesses are supposed to proceed following this announcement.

“It’s utterly confusing," he says. "Fortunately, we’re in a circle of fellow businesses that keep each other in the loop, so know we are entitled to a £1000 grant due to the 17 days we’re now obliged to close - by the way, this amount does not even cover the rent in Cardiff – but where is the clarity? Small businesses are all running around now just trying to find a way to survive and there is no straightforward government advice on what, if any, support we are entitled to. It takes hours we don’t have trying to work out where we stand."

Paul also operates deli-café Ultracomida in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. "Once holidaymakers started returning to Wales, we saw a mini uplift in late summer," he admits. "Now even that silver lining is gone. Monday’s news is hard enough to take in Cardiff, where admittedly Coronavirus cases are fairly high. But imagine how you take it in Ceredigion, where there have been seven Covid-19 deaths in total. It doesn’t make sense."

Ashley Govier is director of Cardiff’s newest attraction, the grand 1888-built Coal Exchange, now a Renaissance-Revival hotel, restaurant and events space in Cardiff Bay. Opened with much fanfare after a long refurbishment last Friday, it will have to close its doors just one week later.

"We are supportive of what the Welsh government is trying to achieve," he says. "But virus transmission rate in hotels is so low, lower than in the home according to many sources, and this is partly a result of our investment in PPE and appropriate sanitation. And then there is the timing. This month businesses have to be paying 20% of employee wages. The old furlough scheme is ending and the new one has not begun. And we don’t know what it entails yet.

"We need to stop seeing health and the economy as two separate things. They’re not. We are fighting here for the jobs of 40 staff and to see their worry and mental stress now on top of everything else, with their salaries cut, this has a direct link to health. I would just like the economic team to catch up. And the announcement has not brought certainty. If I knew that come November 9 the hotel could trade again, that would be fine, but we don’t know that: if the firebreaker will be extended or if restrictions on travel from other areas will continue. Tourism to Cardiff has been damaged significantly and for hotels we are looking at two years now before we can stand a chance to get back to normal. I feel we are back where we were in March."

Not all Cardiff’s visitor-dependant businesses are so devastated. "The announcement naturally brings about feelings of apprehension throughout the already highly-impacted hospitality sector," concedes Lucy Hopkins, marketing manager for the city centre’s main boutique hotel, Hotel Indigo. "This is something we were anticipating happening sooner or later though. A two-week circuit break will inevitably add further strain to the business, but if this means that we can get Covid-19 under control on a nationwide scale, we hope that this will create an environment where the Welsh hospitality industry is able to bounce back once more."

For Phill Lewis, the saving grace is that his Cardiff restaurants already have an established name. But many hospitality businesses in Cardiff are not so lucky, he says, and as they are forced to close the city centre will change, possibly for good.

"Leisure, tourism, hospitality – they might be deemed non-essential, but it’s not for the people who work in them, and when you take that away what is left is all quite draconian," he reflects sadly. "I was in central Cardiff yesterday – it’s a ghost town. The centre was for tourists. They’re not coming. No one wants to go there, no business in its right mind wants to trade there now. What you’ll see as a result of this is the reversal of urban developments in the past, where any new business that can somehow stay open will move out to the suburbs, where locals live and can support them.

"But I would say that unless you are already a well-established business, you’re doomed."