OPENING OF CAFES AND RESTAURANTS IN BELGIUM


JUNE 8:

Today is a great day here in Belgium. Most of the country will be reopened after the three months’ lockdown.  Cafes, restaurants and hotels open again, if they want to.  The rules about distance and cleaning hands, etc. are still in force. At some point it was even foreseen that guests in cafes and restaurants had to wear masks.  This idea was a bad one. The café owners as well as we – the clients – could quickly figure out, that it would be bad business for everybody.   Fortunately, summer is here, so outdoor service will be offered in many places – also where it did not exist before.

About 20 % of the restaurants and cafes have said that they are not going to open today. They think that the restrictions will still prevent their business from being profitable, so they have decided to wait and see, until less strict rules will apply.

Experts believe that about 10 % of the restaurants and cafes in Brussels will never open again due to the crisis.  Let’s hope that the best and most enjoyable ones will survive.

And what do the Belgians do to attract clients again?

A very interesting initiative is that it is now possible for the employers ( private as well as public ) to give each of their employees a “café check” worth 300 €.  It is tax free, and the employers may deduct it fully in their tax calculations. The condition is that the money is used in cafes and restaurants – and on cultural activities.  The purpose is to stimulate the activities. It will be interesting to see how it works.  The employers are not obliged to do it. But as it hardly costs them anything and it is a nice way to support their staff it will probably be used.  A nice encouragement after the lockdown!

The same aim is behind another plan – to give 10 free train tickets to each citizen. This will make it possible for them to travel more inside Belgium – after this has been forbidden during the lockdown.

The owners of the cafes and restaurants also try to be creative in this new situation. We all know the “Happy Hour” offers, where you at certain hours will get two drinks and still pay only for one.  The new idea is called “Helpy Hour”. This means that you pay for two and get one. In this way you will support the cafes, of which many are in serious economic difficulties after the three months’ lockdown. In this way everybody can help saving his or her favourite cafes.   Also interesting to see how that works.

There are also other ideas on the table. Such as a reduction of the VAT rates in restaurants ( like in Germany, where the rate has been reduced from 7% to 5% ). In Belgium you pay at the moment 12 % on food and 21 % on beverages.

Several other opening also take place today. This is the case for churches and other religious institutions.  So – as we say in Denmark – now also the Belgians have the possibility to sit in the church and think about the café.   Most of them might well do the opposite 😊  

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