Traders hope easing of Covid rules is ‘beginning of the end’ of pandemic
Stephen Magorrian, managing director of the Horatio Group, said that the challenge for businesses now was to rebuild consumer confidence.
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Your support makes all the difference.A bar owner has expressed hope that the lifting of Covid-19 legal restrictions in Northern Ireland is the “beginning of the end” of the pandemic.
Stephen Magorrian, managing director of the Horatio Group, said that the challenge for businesses now was to rebuild consumer confidence in the hospitality industry.
The requirement for people to wear face coverings in settings such as shops and on public transport has been removed while Covid certificates are no longer needed to gain entry to nightclubs and large indoor unseated events.
Businesses will also no longer be required to undertake coronavirus-linked risk assessments or collect track and trace information from customers.
While the curbs are being removed from law, they are remaining as guidance.
Mr Magorrian said: “People are seeing that restrictions are being relaxed everywhere else.
“It is to be welcomed, it is the beginning of the end.
“But we are conscious of the fact that the pandemic hasn’t ended, so we still need to be cautious but it is good to see the start of the end.”
The bar owner said that huge challenges remained in a hospitality industry that has been devastated by two years of restrictions.
The rebuilding of confidence will be the main thing. We need to make sure that our customers still feel safe
He added: “The rebuilding of confidence will be the main thing. We need to make sure that our customers still feel safe.
“Whilst the restrictions have been relaxed we still need to be doing things which give that sense of safety.
“It is a new way of working, it is a new beginning for us.”
He said that local traders had been left frustrated by some of the restrictions which had been imposed.
“It seemed to be that hospitality was always being picked upon, that is the way it felt.”
When asked how business had recovered in recent months, Mr Magorrian said: “It has been a mixed bag, in the city centre it is really difficult.
“The town is dead because there are no workers.
“When you go out into the suburbs you are seeing places are pretty busy. It is just different for different people.”
Belfast City Centre was busy with shoppers on Tuesday afternoon with a mixture of people wearing face masks in shops, and some who did not.
Aaron Chism, the co-owner of Belfast city centre clothes shop Fuzz Vintage, said his hope was for brighter days ahead.
He started the business in the middle of the pandemic in October 2020.
“Hopefully there’s going to be more people knocking about Belfast and they’ll feel more comfortable to go into shops and we’ll get more customers,” he told the PA news agency.
“It’s been quiet with lockdowns and stuff and then having to be closed. We opened in the middle of things before a second lockdown – it was a harsh time to open a shop but hopefully it’s going back to normal now.”
He added: “I wouldn’t really say it has been helping things, having to close shops, having to do certain things, having to only let a certain amount of people into the shop.
“Then with people getting laid off their jobs and furlough, there has been a lot less money going about. It has been quite a dampener on the business.”
Mr Chism said a removal of the guidance for people to work from home would help to drive more business towards city centre shops.
“We would get a lot of workers from offices coming in, people come in on their lunch breaks, it does help out quite a lot.
“People working at home really affects things.”
Colin Neill, the chief executive of Hospitality Ulster, said Tuesday was the day the sector had been waiting for.
He said: “This is a good day, I think I said to someone earlier: you couldn’t annoy me today.
“We are realistic, Covid is still here and we have to take account of that.
“But this is now the first day we can really start to rebuild our industry.”
This now allows us to move forward, there are huge challenges but at least we are now moving forward
He added: “We have come out of a horrible two years, with really punitive restrictions. Restrictions which sent a message that we weren’t a place you should be in.
“So this now allows us to move forward. There are huge challenges but at least we are now moving forward.
“The immediate challenge is this probably is the most vulnerable quarter. We have had no Christmas so we have come out of that with no reserves.
“We face all the protections being removed. The industry is very vulnerable and will be and we’ve got to get them through this quarter.
“Then we face the challenge of rebuilding. Rebuilding consumer confidence, rebuilding our staff teams and reattracting tourism.
“It is not job done. We are through one battle, there is another to come.”