{"id":133023,"date":"2020-12-23T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=133023"},"modified":"2020-12-23T08:37:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T18:37:13","slug":"restaurants-anticipate-massive-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/23\/restaurants-anticipate-massive-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant doom: Survey results anticipate massive closures"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

\"sorry<\/p>\n

More than half of Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s restaurants will be forced to permanently close by April 2021, if tourism does not significantly increase, according to a survey by the Public Policy Center<\/a>, which is housed in the College of Social Sciences<\/a> at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa. In addition, 87% of those restaurateurs believe that if their restaurant fails, they will not be able to secure financing to start over.<\/p>\n

The report explained, “If these assessments come to pass, not only will a vibrant portion of our state\u2019s culture be silenced, but those members of our community with the skill and experience to resurrect the restaurant industry in a post-COVID environment will be locked out of doing so due to lack of ability to gain capital to restart.”<\/p>\n

Results also indicated a strong perception statewide that government contact tracing has been ineffective, with less than 4% of restaurants seeing tangible results of the contact tracing efforts they have been directed to undertake. Also, a majority of restaurateurs have expressed “little” to “no” confidence in government decision making in regards to COVID-19. Restaurant owners and managers, however, are not opposed to taking additional safety procedures if these would lead to a loosening of restrictions. The survey received 184 responses with slightly more than 50% of respondents operating restaurants solely on Oʻahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n

This is the Public Policy Center\u2019s third report on Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s restaurant industry during COVID-19, which is aimed to stimulate discussions and inspire a renewed partnership between the restaurant industry and government officials.<\/p>\n

View the entire report on the Public Policy Center\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n