We asked several licensees and operators for their thoughts and business projections for the first quarter of 2021 and here’s what Les Ross, licensee at The Douglas Arms in Dumfries had to say…
We’re able to reopen on Friday 11th December but the Big Burns Supper Festival won’t be going ahead this year (11 days at end of January/beginning of February) so we’ll miss our biggest two trading weekends anyway – the two weekends of BBS are our most profitable of the whole year – even better than Christmas or Easter Bank Holiday Weekend, etc., so it’s a real blow to the business to lose these.
The Big Burns Supper is only one of several Burns Night celebrations which take place in Dumfries every year (the town makes the most of the Rabbie Burns connection) so a whole lot of businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector will be affected by the cancellation of dinners etc. this year.
February, post-BBS, is probably the quietest month of the year – though thankfully short – but it’s hard to predict customer behaviour in the ‘new normal’. We’ve noticed a significant amount of people have adapted to the restrictions e.g. we expected to see a dip in sales when the 10 pm curfew was introduced, but people started to come out earlier and stay with us for most of the evening, so we’ve been doing OK. Maybe folk will buck the usual trend and come out in February 2021 if we’re open, perhaps in an effort to make up for the time they’ve been unable to socialise during lockdowns. I’m pretty optimistic.