Customers Visiting Restaurants Slightly Increased... Satisfaction with Government Support Measures for 'COVID-19' Is "Uncertain"

Announcement of the 6th Survey Results on COVID-19 Impact Monitoring

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] The average daily number of customers at dining establishments, which had hit rock bottom following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is showing a gradual recovery. However, overall satisfaction among self-employed business owners regarding government support measures related to COVID-19 remains low.

According to the 6th survey results of the "Dining Industry COVID-19 Impact Monitoring Survey" released on the 2nd by the Korea Foodservice Industry Association and the Korea Foodservice Industry Research Institute (K-FIRI), 80.8% of participating dining establishments reported a decrease in the average daily number of customers. The average customer decline rate across all establishments was 34.1%, showing a significant rebound compared to the 65.8% average decline rate reported in the 5th survey.

Regarding the number of employees, 35.2% of the surveyed dining establishments reported staff reductions. The average number of employees per establishment decreased by approximately 0.6, from 2.1 in January to 1.5 in March, representing a 28.6% reduction.

The 6th survey compared changes in the number of customers and employees between January (before the COVID-19 outbreak) and March (after the outbreak). This follows the 1st to 5th surveys, which tracked weekly changes in customer numbers around the date of the first confirmed domestic COVID-19 case (January 20) and were completed by March 6. The current survey was conducted over five days from April 6 to 10, using on-site visits and telephone interviews with 600 dining establishments. Within two months of the survey's start, 15 establishments (2.5%) had temporarily closed and 3 establishments (0.5%) had permanently closed, resulting in a total of 582 establishments surveyed and analyzed.

Overall satisfaction with government support measures related to COVID-19 was below average, scoring 2.26 out of 5. Awareness of COVID-19 support measures averaged 26.0%, while the benefit receipt rate was 1.7%.

In detail, awareness was highest for management stabilization funds (86.3%), emergency disaster relief funds (52.4%), and national tax incentives (47.9%). However, benefit receipt rates were low, with management stabilization funds at 12.7%, emergency disaster relief funds at 5.3%, and national tax incentives at 2.9%. Notably, employment retention subsidies, which are directly related to maintaining employee employment, had an awareness rate of 20.4% but a benefit receipt rate of only 0.3%, indicating a significant gap between awareness and actual receipt.

The Korea Foodservice Industry Research Institute stated, "To prevent large-scale temporary closures, permanent shutdowns, and layoffs in the future, it would be advisable to allocate more budget to support policies directly linked to the operation and employment of dining establishments, such as management stabilization funds and employment retention subsidies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.