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Cambodia: Restaurants reopen, thanks to new menus and support from gov’t
RESTAURATEURS say business is improving slowly with government support and the end of Coronavirus restrictions, helped by a large side-order of innovation on the part of their chefs. They say international travellers will also return to their tables as neighbouring countries relax border restrictions since the Omicron variant appears to be less severe than Delta.
The Cambodia Restaurant Association says its members are reporting that business is an average 30 percent below 2019’s pre-Covid levels but is creeping back up after the hospitality industry reopened its doors under the new normal.
“The ecosystem of the entire industry was impacted for two years,” said association president Arnaud Darc. “The ones that have come across this crisis did so because they received support from six important components of their ecosystem: their people, their customers, their suppliers and service providers, their community, the government, and their owners. Every stakeholder played an important role to allow some success. Every restaurant that is still around by the second semester of 2022 will be stronger than it was before the pandemic started,” he said.
Darc is the founder of Thalias Hospitality Group, which counts Malis in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and Topaz in Phnom Penh among its restaurants. Malis Siem Reap reopened this month after December’s resumption of international flights to the province and Darc says he expects business to recover as foreign travellers return.
“Thalias brands are dependent on international travellers and are still impacted heavily,” he said. “We see countries that are heavily affected by Omicron relaxing their protective measures despite record numbers of positive cases because hospitalisation proportions are much less than Delta, almost not comparable. This is good news for the world and for our business.”
Darc said the government has the pandemic well under control and he believes the country will remain open and safe for frontline staff.
Master Chef and founder of Almond Hospitality Luu Meng said his restaurants are doing better than in the past two years, but still below pre-Covid levels.
“Our restaurant business has been able to recover by about 40 to 60 percent. Some are doing better and some are still closed because tourists are yet to come. We have been able to serve some business people, foreign workers and small NGOs,” he said.
Meng’s restaurants cater to a range of tastes from Cambodian fare at Uy Kuytev and Kroeung Garden, Chinese food at Yi Sang and Japanese cuisine at Kanji. Meng said his team used the period of lockdowns, restrictions and border closures to revitalise their offerings.
“In the last 20 months we tried many new ways to keep our restaurant business alive, with better pricing and new ideas to update and create new menus as well as to offer more local products,” he said.
Meng said during last year’s lockdowns most staff stayed with the company and worked on meeting new safety standards by deep cleaning the restaurants. He said it was important to retain as many staff as possible to provide them with a regular income to support their families. He thanked them for their loyalty, saying they clearly love their jobs and have worked hard to support the brand over the past few years and maintain the high quality of food and service.
State subsidies for furloughed workers and tax exemptions for restaurateurs also did a lot to keep the hospitality sector afloat, he said.
“It was very helpful for our government to come in and help the tourism industry, support the businesses that were able to keep jobs for young Khmers and maintain the income of restaurant operators. It not we would have found it very difficult to keep the restaurants open.”
Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra Marketing and Communications Manager Clement Perocheau agreed that government help for the tourism industry, along with the end of the 14-day quarantine for foreign arrivals, did a lot to support the restaurant business.
“We have observed a positive trend, especially since the Assisted State Quarantine programme was lifted, as well as other restrictions,” he said. “We were able to welcome back our guests with great enthusiasm after a challenging period. We are thankful for the decisions that were taken by the Royal Government and we are looking forward to a better year in 2022. We are expecting both regional and international markets to recover.”
The hotel reopened all its restaurants in December, with Sunday Brunch at La Coupole and the Weekend Sushi Buffet at Hachi proving extremely popular with hotel guests and local diners, he said. The hotel also offers Italian dining at Do Forni and Chinese cuisine at Fu Lu Zu.
“We strongly believe our guests are expecting great value for money and that includes the food of course but also the dining experience itself,” Perocheau said. “We have brought in new chefs to be more creative and we are working on projects to enhance the experience, the atmosphere of our restaurants.”
Perochau admitted it has been a challenge to bring staff back up to speed after the hiatus but said frequent training sessions helped maintain Sofitel’s brand standards and exceed customer expectations.
Darc agreed that restaurants should continue to focus on the quality of both service and the product and use any downtime to train and upskill their staff. Only companies with a strong culture and shared values have been able to overcome the challenges of the past two years, he said.
That attitude applies to small businesses as well as hotel chains and large hospitality groups. Jeremy Ashby and Owen Kaagman own 23 Bistro in Kampot. They said last year’s restrictions, particularly the alcohol ban, made it very difficult for them to operate but they have become more optimistic since Cambodia reopened its borders to foreign visitors.
“Kampot is especially lucky due to its strategic position being close to the sea, the countryside and the capital. Throughout the border closures, we were able to adapt to internal tourism and were lucky enough to pick up decent trade from those escaping the city, we can now start feeling more optimistic as we are starting to see a slow influx of tourists returning,” Ashby said. “It has been a challenging year or two during the lockdowns but ultimately we are so pleased that, with the support of our loyal customers, we have managed to get through the worst of it and still employ the full team on full pay.”
23 Bistro will continue to train its staff, add new offerings to the beer and wine lists and update the menu with the best locally-sourced products Ashby said. “Let’s face it things can only get better.”
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501014568/restaurants-reopen-thanks-to-new-menus-and-support-from-govt/