The Hospitality Leaders Poll from Lumina Intelligence​ for The Morning Advertiser​, MCA​, Big Hospitality ​and Restaurant​ also gathered the thoughts of the 208 respondents on the vaccine.

It asked, ‘with talk of the vaccine, how confident are you that things could be back to some sort of normality by spring?’

Just over half (52%) said they were ‘a bit’ confident, almost a third (31%) said ‘not a lot’ 9% were not at all confident and 8% were very confident.

More financial support

One operator said: “We need more financial support through to summer 2021, so we can get to the point when the vaccines start to make a difference.”

Another highlighted the measures pubs had put in place to be safe environments during the pandemic.

They said: “It’s ridiculous most if not all pubs are Covid-safe and regulations adhered to. We are forerunners in track and trace, we have one of the lowest infection rates in country yet penalised the most. With no compensation for abiding the rules. While supermarkets and garages sell alcohol with gay abandon and no restrictions. This will kill off most wet-led pubs.”

The business leaders were also questioned on how strictly they were enforcing the rules on ‘substantial meals’, household mixing and additional drinks after eating.

Confidence levels

Some 47% of those surveyed said they would be following the rules very strictly, more than a fifth (23%) weren’t impacted by the rules, 28% were leaving it to customer’s discretion and a small minority (1%) wouldn’t be asking any questions.