News
Coronavirus hits restaurants hard in April
The Ministry of Economic Affairs says the island's food and beverage industry had its worst sales month in April since November of 2014, as more consumers opted to stay at home and eat due to concerns about the coronavirus.
Data shows that restaurants and beverage vendors saw their April sales fall by 22.8% from a year earlier to NT$47.9 billion. And that was the lowest level since November of 2014.
The decline was also the steepest year-on-year fall for any month since the ministry started to release the data in January 2000.
According to the ministry, the adoption of measures, including social distancing protocols, discouraged consumers from in-person dining last month, while restaurants also had to space out their seating, cutting the number of people they could serve.
While tourist customers also dried up because of the government's travel ban on foreign visitors.
