Turnover accommodation and food services fell sharply in Q1

Significant drop in turnover in accommodation services

Relative to Q4 2019, turnover in accommodation services, including hotels and holiday parks, plummeted by 14.9 percent. The volume of sales also decreased by 14.9 percent. In Q4 2019 there was still 1.1 percent turnover growth. Hotels saw their turnover decline by 16.9 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Food and beverage services record substantial turnover losses

In Q1, turnover generated by food and beverage services (including restaurants, fast-food restaurants, canteens, catering companies and cafés) fell by 13.6 percent relative to the previous quarter. The volume of sales decreased by 14.4 percent.

At 16.8 percent, restaurants recorded the largest turnover decline. The volume of sales decreased by 17.2 percent. Cafés saw their turnover and volume of sales decline as well, by 16.3 and 16.9 percent respectively. Turnover of fast-food restaurants (cafeterias, lunchrooms, snack bars, food stands, etc.) and canteens decreased less sharply, although it was still considerable at 8.9 and 9 percent respectively.

Just as in accommodation services, the loss of turnover in food and beverage services over Q1 is mainly attributable to the month of March.

Business confidence down substantially in accommodation and food services

In Q2 2020, business confidence is down across all sectors. Due to the many company closures as part of the COVID-19 measures, entrepreneurs in accommodation and food services have the most pessimistic outlook by far. The sentiment indicator stands at -84.3 in this sector. In the previous quarter, positive and negative sentiments were fairly balanced among the entrepreneurs(0.2).