How will Brexit affect the Hospitality industry?(Still working on the title)

With Brexit looming over the year many are worried.

“I think that Brexit’s biggest impact on hospitality industry is that we are seeing and going to see a big staffing shortage.” says the Executive Head Chef of Heritage London restaurant, Aarik Persaud.

However nobody knows for sure what is going to happen after the 31st of December , as that is the finish due date of the transition period that has started right after the Brexit day.

Besides the pressure of Brexit on the hospitality industry, and particularly on workforce as Chef Aarik mentions, the current situation with the pandemic complicates things. As all the restaurants are closing or are already closed , the EU workers are moving back to their home countries, and the question that remains is whether they will return back after the virus.

(In the video that is coming up next i will have three chefs and a farmer saying one phrase that will show people how each of them will be affected (not full interviews, small cuts from the actual interviews), and it will also give the reader a taste of what my project will consist of . Who the interviewees would be , and hopefully intrigue them , and make them want to read further to understand why they have specifically said those phrases. The reason that i cannot edit it now is that i cannot download the premier on my computer for now , and it wasnt possible to do it in Imovie)The cut ftom the Executive Head Chef would be , me asking him ‘how do you think you will hadle the situation ? He says I have no idea and laughs. Next is a pastry chef from France , she says ,”Its very complicated to find a full team” )Have not interviewed the farmer yet.

(the video would be here )

Imagine you are sitting in a restaurant , lets say Italian , and you don’t hear the foreign ‘Italian’ accent , the chefs and the waiters are all from UK. Before you would have been able to feel the atmosphere of Italy, enjoy their self expression, their loud voices,and for the time being in the restaurant , immerse into a different culture without travelling. However this may not be the case in the nearest future.

Brexit may have an impact on labour and quality of workforce , especially since in hospitality business in UK a lot of people are from different nationalities , and thus “There maybe a lack of availability after Brexit”, says Chef Aarik.

According to a KPMG report, Labour migration in the hospitality sector, 75 per cent of waiters in London are EU nationals.

Dmitry Filimonov , the owner of Heritage London restaurant says,”First of all , all EU citizens that already work in UK have recived a 5 year visa prolongation. So it wont affect dramatically restaurant labour in a short term. In a long term with new rules of applying for a working visa in the UK it will become more difficult to find EU citizens at junior positions.“

(Thid video will also be edited, the questions will be written on the screen , i will have a lower third to introduce the interviewee(Manuele Scocchi Senior Chef de partie), and also edit the sound)

“The recent quarantine due to Covid-19 will also change the game as a lot of companies especially at low margin businesses like hospitality will shut down which will create a huge supply and low demand for hospitality workers.”, says Dmitriy Filimonov.

But not only the frontline is affected

A lot of restaurants rely heavily on local products as they are highly demanded by the customers. The growing consumer demand for local products has started in around 2015, and according to the research provided by Gov.UK , nearly 80 per cent of people saw buying local food as a top priority.

Imagine coming to your favourite restaurant and ordering your favourite dish, but hearing from the waiter that it is not available for order due to the lack of local products that are essential for that dish.

However there has been a lot of speculations about the fact that after Brexit the government subsidies to local producers , such as farmers , will be cut, which will therefore result in a shortage of those ‘local products’, thus affecting restaurants.

Farmers are concerned that after Brexit they will be undercut by cheap imports from the US and Asia , with lower food safety and animal welfare regulations.

(I was supposed to go the farm and make a small VT , film the production process and the interivew itself but due tot he virus it is impossible. I am currently being provided with the contact information with a farmer that has agreed for an online interview. Questions that i will ask ;

1) In general. how do you think Brexit will affect farming in the UK?

2)A lot of farmers are worried that after Brexit they will be undercut due to cheap imports such as from the US?What do you think about that? Do you think Brexit will affect the supply of local products

3)How will you handle the situation?

(Hopefully they will agree to send me some photos of the production process , and if they do , i will insert them in the text.)

In the long term ,Brexit will also affect tourism , which can have a direct impact on hospitality, restaurants in particular.

Brits may start spending more holidays in the UK, which will lead to an increase in spendings, and an increase of customers that would go to restaurants.

On the other hand , due to the currency , it is likely that citizens of the EU would be less attracted to visit the UK , which would result in a decrease of spendings.

It might however be the case that those two factors will outweigh each other , and the hospitality business will not be affected as much by those constituents.

(Get a quote from an expert from the tourism industry)

Overall , only time will show the direct impacts of Brexit on the hospitality industry. After the transition period workers in the industry would be able to clearly see the obstacles that they would be facing, and come up with solutions to tackle those problems.

(This is how the project will look like on Shorthand )