The hospitality industry is heading back toward pre-pandemic levels of trade according to the latest Restaurant Association hospitality report.
After two years of subdued trading, Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said she was glad to see the industry bounce back after such a challenging couple of years.
“We’re really pleased to see that. It doesn’t mean that we are out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination but it's a really positive sign and a sign that there is starting to be some recovery in our sector as well.”
Bidois said that with the aid of tourism, people getting back into dining out were showing positive movement.
'Putting real pressure on'
Bidois said the next challenge for cafes and restaurants was finding enough staff to help run the restaurants.
“We are at crunch levels and we need about 30,000 extra staff to get us through the busy trading summer period.”
Bidois said that if the industry was unable to get that work to help ou,t it could be what holds up growth in the hospitality sector.
“Some of the businesses are letting us know they are having to reduce their trading hours, some people are even opting to close for a day that they might otherwise be open. That's putting real pressure on the business as well.”