Ban on Gatherings of 5 or More... "Are There Many Cancellations? There Are No Reservations at All"

A More Brutal Year-End Than the IMF Era
Busy Areas Like Hongdae and Gangnam Are Quiet
"What Are We Supposed to Do If Tables Are Removed?"
Some Restaurants Not Following Social Distancing

On the 22nd, a staff member at a restaurant in Jongno-gu, Seoul, is making a phone call to cancel a reservation related to a year-end gathering. The restaurant staff explained that in a typical year-end season, customers would flock in, and they would add extra sheets to the reservation ledger to accommodate bookings, but this year, even customers who had made reservations are inquiring about cancellations.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Donghoon Jeong and Jeongyun Lee] "There has never been such a brutal year-end, not even during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis."

At 7 p.m. on the 22nd in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Mr. Lee (63), who has been running a seafood specialty restaurant for a long time, expressed his frustration. The day before the ban on gatherings of five or more people was implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the restaurant district looked desolate. The restaurant, about 66㎡ (approximately 20 pyeong) in size, had six tables seating four people each, but only three customers visited that evening. Even those were regulars from the neighborhood who have known each other for a long time. The situation is not improving but getting worse. Mr. Lee said, "Since the daily confirmed cases recently exceeded 1,000, no groups have come to the restaurant. Because there are no reservations, there have been no cancellations after the ban on gatherings of five or more people."

The evening scenes in Seoul's representative bustling areas such as Mapo, Hongdae, Yeouido, and Gangnam were generally similar. Although there were concerns about a 'balloon effect' due to the effective ban on year-end gatherings, small-scale year-end parties with three to four people per table predominated. Mr. A (53), the owner of a jokbal (pig's trotters) specialty restaurant that uses both the first floor and basement floor as dining areas in Hongdae, known as the 'street of youth,' said, "This is the first time I've seen the streets of Hongdae so empty," adding, "We can barely continue operating through takeout and delivery." However, in small restaurants, there were signs that quarantine guidelines such as 'maintaining a 1-meter distance between tables' were being ignored. One restaurant owner said, "We operate for two hours at lunch and dinner, but what are we supposed to do if we have to remove several tables?" and called the guidelines "insensitive to the pain of self-employed business owners."

On the evening of the 22nd at 8 PM, one day before the ban on gatherings of five or more people, the streets near Hongik University were noticeably empty, making it difficult to feel the year-end atmosphere.

The area around Gangnam Station has become bleak. Restaurants had customers in groups of two to four, but even then, there were more empty seats. Groups of five or more were rarely seen. Citizens complied with the strengthened quarantine rules in advance. Mr. Shim (64), who runs a barbecue restaurant, said, "Yesterday, there were about 10 groups of customers, but from tomorrow, with the strengthened social distancing, it dropped to about two or three groups, and there were no groups of five or more at all," adding, "Before the COVID-19 crisis, we used to get more than 10 reservations a day and had waiting lists, but now we don't even expect that."

Cancellation calls from customers who had reserved for groups of five or more continued. Mr. Jeon, who runs a Japanese restaurant, said, "Three groups had reserved for five or more people on the evening of the 23rd, but I received calls this afternoon canceling those reservations," adding, "Sales have been down about 40% since COVID-19, and although we expected reservations to increase at year-end, the opposite has happened." Mr. A, who runs a Chinese restaurant, also explained, "About five groups had reserved for five or more people, but all contacted us today to cancel," adding, "Three groups who reserved for four people also said it would be difficult to visit."

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