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As Paris cafés reopen, owners ask ‘will the customers come back?’

Paris cafe and restaurant owners cheered on Monday as the government finally allowed them to reopen their dining rooms after losing three months of revenue during the coronavirus lockdown

Published: 15 June 2020 15:15 CEST
As Paris cafés reopen, owners ask 'will the customers come back?'
Customers are allowed to sit inside Paris cafés for the first time since March 14th. Photo: AFP

The sooner-than-expected reopening for the Paris region was announced by President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, followed by news of nine Covid-19 deaths in the previous 24 hours – France's lowest daily toll since March.

While restaurants across most of France were allowed to open earlier this month, those in and around the capital, where Covid-19 circulation remained high, could serve clients only on outdoor terraces.

READ ALSO Paris cafés, bars and pools to reopen fully as region becomes green zone

 

Physical distancing rules mean that not all tables can be used. Photo: AFP

“The question now is whether clients will come back,” Albert Aidan, the manager at L'Ami Georges, a few blocks from the Opera Garnier, told AFP.

“Most companies are still having their employees work from home,” he said.

Not all restaurants immediately threw open their doors – the Vaudeville, a classic brasserie down the street, remained closed.

Yet many shared Macron's optimism that France has marked a “first victory” against the coronavirus thanks to strict stay-at-home orders imposed in March.

“The bulk of the epidemic is behind us,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday, though he cautioned: “This doesn't mean we can stop fighting the virus.”

“It's going to be a party,” Stephane Manigold, owner of four Paris restaurants, including the two-starred Maison Rostang, told AFP.

Many people are still working from home, cutting the potential for lunchtime and coffee customers. Photo: AFP

Manigold made headlines last month after successfully suing his insurer, French giant Axa, to pay around €70,000 in compensation for lost business.

Insurers argue that most contracts do not cover the nationwide administrative shutdown but restaurants say their livelihoods are on the line, and have called on the government to intervene.

Even in the rest of France, where restaurants were allowed to fully reopen from May 11th, owners have had to remove tables to ensure a distance of one metre between diners.

Didier Chenet, head of the GNI association of independent hotel and restaurant owners, estimates the social distancing rules have cut capacity by half at least.

Unless the government lifts the one-metre rule, he said, “recovery will be very slow, with economic conditions that are not viable for our businesses,” he said.

Staff must wear masks, as do customers when arriving and leaving. Photo: AFP

Foreign tourists, the key ingredient for success at Paris restaurants in particular, are not expected to arrive in pre-Covid numbers anytime soon, even as the EU begins to open up its internal borders.

The first train from Paris to Germany since mid-March left the Gare du Nord station early on Monday, heading for Dortmund.

“We're taking the children to see their grandmother and spend some holiday time together as a family. It feels good after so long!” said one passenger, Alexis.

Many Paris restaurants will need time to restock and get their employees back. The French state has been paying the bulk of their salaries during lockdown to avoid layoffs, a colossal financial effort.

Alain Fontaine, owner of Le Mesturet, and his staff were preparing spaced-out tables amid arrows on the floor showing clients where to walk, ahead of reopening his dining room Tuesday.

Clients will be asked to use sanitising hand gel on entry and keep their masks on until seated, he said.

“We'll have to try to alleviate the nervousness, and also this element of formality,” Fontaine told AFP as masked cooks prepared for the sidewalk lunch crowd.

Manigold, for his part, said: “At best we'll open two restaurants on Wednesday, and the others next week.”

“One day maybe politicians will understand that you can't just open a restaurant in a day. They could have avoided the abruptness,” he added.

Macron said on Sunday that the government had mobilised €500 billion to ease the coronavirus blow to the economy, including more than €6 billion in state-backed loans to restaurants, hotels and cafes.

He also announced all children up to middle school age must return to class next Monday, a relief for parents who have been juggling work and home schooling.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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