Hospitality industry upset at Covid self-isolation rules and lack of financial support. Video / Hospitality NZ
Valentine's Day spending within the hospitality sector plummeted $59.9 million this year in another blow for an industry struggling under the strain of Covid.
A new survey by Worldline - formerly Paymark - revealed spending through hospitality merchants was down 14.3 per cent to $359m in the first two weeksof February, compared with the $418.9m spent in the same period last year.
But the retail spending remained the same at $1.3 billion this year as it was in 2021.
Shakespeare Tavern owner Sunny Kaushal said normally his restaurant would be very busy with lunch and dinner for Valentine's Day, but this year lunch was dead and in the evening he only had a few diners in.
He told the Herald in the previous years for Valentine's Day, he had about 60 and 70 per cent of occupancy but now, with the Auckland CBD looking like a "ghost town", there are barely any people around.
"We only have one table of two booked today for Valentine's Day," said Auckland restaurant owner Kaushal.
Sunny Kaushal, owner of Shakespeare Tavern. Photo / File
He said most of his customers worked in the CBD but with the scare of the Omicron variant, the city centre looked like a ghost town with very few people.
George Putnam, Worldline's head of data, said the data showed NZ consumers still celebrated Valentine's Day this year, but that they just did it a little differently.
"In previous years we've seen the spending totals on dining out spike on and around Valentine's Day. This did not occur this year to the same extent," he said.
Spending among food and liquor service merchants was up just $1.9m on last year's figures.
Putnam said that the broader pattern for February so far has been a drop in food and liquor services payments, continuing the Covid-19 related trend that began in late January when the nation shifted to the 'Red' level setting under the Covid protection framework.
"To be fair, romantic dinners are only part of the total dining-out spend and poor weather may have deterred other diners, but the modest spike on the day suggests we preferred our candle-lit dinners at home this year. We do know, though, that the traditional gift buying occurred, showing that romance is still in the air, especially in Canterbury."
A Regional Romance Rating created from the percentage change in spending at florists and jewellers between February 8 and 14 shows Cantabrians were the most romantic this year.
"Canterbury ranks as NZ's most romantic region as Kiwis spend up on flowers and jewellery but less on the traditional intimate night out."
"It's clear that the dampening effect of Covid-19 that we saw beginning in late January has increased this month, but we will be able to provide a better view of these ongoing impacts in our next consumer spending update on March 1."
An extra $1.7m was spent through florists and watch/jewellery merchants across the country on Valentine's Day compared with last year.
Luke Dallow the owner of dumplings and beer restaurant Midnight Gardener. Photo / Supplied
Luke Dallow the owner of dumplings and beer restaurant Midnight Gardener said his restaurants would not normally open on Mondays but for a Valentine's Day, he would have "absolutely" made an exception.
"Normally Valentine's Day is a very busy day on of a restaurants calendar and even though we normally close [on Monday] I would have opened up for this day," he said.
But having to work under the current alert level setting meant he would be losing more money operating his restaurant so he remained shut. It was not "worthwhile" opening, he told the Herald.
