Last December, as Sydney adjusted to the new normal of the four-square-meter rule and limited capacity dining, the City of Sydney’s decision to reclaim sections of street for outdoor dining zones was a godsend for struggling hospo venues. Due to the success of this pilot phase of the scheme, the City of Sydney has moved to expand the concept to even more areas around Metropolitan Sydney, and as hospitality businesses prepare to tentatively reopen in October, it couldn’t be coming at a more urgent moment for Sydney’s restaurant, bar and café owners.
Plans for an outdoor dining boom were already in motion before the Delta lockdown, with the announcement in May that $5.7 million would be invested into the scheme, allowing permit fees to be waived until June 2022. Some 266 applications have now been approved by the City of Sydney for outdoor dining zones and now plans are in the works to license outdoor live entertainment too, meaning Sydney’s streets could soon be playing host to gigs and other performances.
For much of this year, both the City of Sydney and the NSW government had their sights firmly set on rejuvenating Sydney's hospitality and nightlife sectors, until lockdowns brought those plans to an abrupt halt in mid-June. Many of the ambitious plans that had been previously announced, such as the seven-day NYE takeover of the Cahill Expressway, are now likely to be scaled back or cancelled entirely. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for NSW’s hospo businesses, with plans to allow dining for fully vaccinated patrons from mid-October, once 70 per cent of the state’s eligible adults have had both jabs.
Recently released data revealed that despite the opportunity to pivot to takeaway and delivery models, hospitality venues of every kind had suffered drastic declines in revenues, most notably bars and pubs, which have experienced a decrease of income by 52.9 per cent compared to August 2020.