AMMAN —
Restaurants usually see a boom in their business
as the holiday season approaches, but the situation this year seems different,
according to observers and restaurant owners.
اضافة اعلان
Many in the
restaurant business have said that the economic situation this year is more
difficult, and they do not expect things to pick up.
Omar Al-Awwad, the
head of the Jordanian Union of Restaurants and Confectionery Proprietors, said,
“we do not believe that there will be a good activity this month”, attributing
this to “poor liquidity among citizens”.
“We, as a union,
suggested that the central bank postpone loan payments for a period of two to
three months — until the market revives, but the bank did not respond,” he
said.
He said that the
recent decision to prohibit hiring foreign workers in the restaurant industry,
asking that local workers be employed instead, forced restaurant owners to
raise the salaries of foreign workers, given “the refusal of local workers to
work in the sector”.
At the same time,
since the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, citizens’ purchasing power has
declined, and their priorities have changed, he said, due to a rising cost of
living, and all of this “reflected negatively on the restaurant sector”.
Restaurant owner
Amer Fahd concurred, reiterating that the purchasing power “has declined a
lot”; he also said that he was “not optimistic at all about a near revival” of
the sector.
“In the past,
families used to go to restaurants once a week. Today, they might pay a visit
to a restaurant once a month, which is a bad indicator for the restaurant
industry,” he said.
Sahem Al-Dhahrawi,
yet another restaurant owner, showed optimism, expressing belief that the
restaurant business will pick up this month “in conjunction with the holiday
and festive season”.
“There will be a
recovery in the restaurant sector, especially if employees receive their
salaries on time,” he told
Jordan News.
Raed Hamada,
representative of the restaurant sector at the Jordan Chamber of Commerce, told
Jordan News that the “economic movement may be activated and restaurant
turnout may increase by a small percentage only”.
“Families’ priorities are different now; they used to pay
for luxuries and entertainment, but not anymore,” he said, stressing that the
“commercial sector is still suffering and will need some five years to recover”.
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