Page 22 - FoodFocusThailand No.185 August 2021

SPECIAL FOCUS
SPECIAL FOCUS

COVID-19 IMPACTS ON

THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS

CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND ADAPTATIONS

The severity of the coronavirus outbreaks has been gaining its momentum, and the countermeasures to curb
the virus spread have produced adverse effects on Thailand’s restaurant business. According to Kasikorn
Research Center, the restaurant industry’s value in 2021 is forecasted to suffer a setback of 13.5-17.3%
due to the spiking numbers of daily infected cases in multiple areas, especially in Bangkok and its adjacent
provinces that are placed under the maximum and strict control. The new wave of coronavirus cases has
prompted the government to reevaluate and take its restrictive practices to the next level.

The restaurant business is obliged to stop providing dine-in Nonthaburi, Samut Prakarn, and Samut Sakhon. Soon underway are
service, leaving it with the only alternative of take-away service. Such additional relief efforts such as a wage co-payment plan in which the
restrictions, expected to be in effect for a duration of over 30 days, government grants a partial subsidization to SMEs to ensure continued
will inevitably affect the sector despite the cabinet’s relief plans employment of labor.
approved on June 29, 2021. One of the damage-alleviating measures The latest COVID-19 wave is a huge blow to the restaurant
is the wage compensation scheme for dine-in eateries in the restriction- sector, particularly to garden-style, buffet, and fine-dining venues,
imposed provinces such as Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Pathum Thani, whose seventy percent of the main sources of income derive from

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