The hospitality industry was looking forward to the new season! © Alex Gallosi
After a summer of mixed results, with more than uncertain weather, absent tourists and the introduction of the Health Pass, the results of the autumn season seem more positive than expected. A look back at an unprecedented month of September!
The figures are in, with an increase in visitors compared to last summer, the RHCs were impatiently awaiting the start of the new season. According to a survey conducted by the CCI Ile de France among 150 professionals, 80% of restaurant owners have reopened since May 19th, but among them, only 15% have returned to the pre-confinement rate. As for the hotel industry, faced with a 72% drop in foreign visitors and a 65% drop in business travel since 2020, the situation is harsh: an average occupancy rate of 37.5% for all hotels in France (Panorama 2021 of hospitality in France by Coach Omnium). The entire independent hotel sector is facing a more than uncertain future.
However, Atout France notes that in the second quarter, France continues to be one of the least deteriorated countries, a sign that the country is holding up better in the tourism market. “No one can say, yet, how many hotels will close after this one and half year perfusion. We will have to wait until the end of 2021, at least, to count the dead and the seriously injured, when it will be necessary to start reimbursing the PGE (Loan given by the State to the restaurant industry during Covid 19)”, affirms the founder of Coach Omnium. And that’s without taking into account the announcement by Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman, who wants to “maintain the possibility of using” the health pass “until next summer”.
So will the call for project by the President of the Republic, who has put Alain Griset, Minister Delegate for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, with Guillaume Gomez at the helm, in charge of the “Year of Gastronomy” label for 2022, allow French culinary know-how to shine around the world to bring back foreigners and support the restaurant industry?
And one, and two, and three trade shows!
The start of the new school year was also marked by the resumption of important culinary events. The first to open the ball was Omnivore, at the Parc Floral, under the sign of openness and diversity. What a pleasure to meet familiar faces and to be able to reconnect. This was followed by the usual Taste of Paris Agapes, at the ephemeral Grand Palais this year, in an overexcited and always good-natured atmosphere. The aficionados were not mistaken, as more than 30,000 visitors came to meet the 90 or so chefs present!
Finally, the third event of the autumn, and not the least, was the highly anticipated Sirha in Lyon. After an 18-month hiatus for the sector, this year’s event appeared to be the long-awaited resumption of activity by over 150,000 visitors, including the Head of State.
And who says culinary fairs, also mentions competitions! It was the Marseillaise that rang out loudest this year to celebrate David Tissot’s Bocuse d’Or, whereas France had not reached the podium since 2013 and it was the Italians who shone in pastry. Bravo, Bravi, Bravissimi!
Mauro Colagreco on the Omnivore Food Festival stage ©Florian Domergue
The Taste Of Paris festival welcomed over 30,000 visitors ©TasteFestivals
The Bocuse d’or victory celebrated by the French! Cock-a-doodle-doo! ©Bocusedor
Football and Gastronomy in France, same battle?
It was during the “Diner des grands chefs” organised in Lyon that the President greeted the professionals of the hospitality and gastronomy sectors. After thanking and praising the work, self-sacrifice and dedication of the chefs during the health crisis, despite the “whatever it takes”, he reaffirmed the importance of gastronomy in France and reassured them about the future: “We have defended employment because it is the only way to defend employees and entrepreneurs. If the crisis started again tomorrow, I would do the same thing. I say it with force”.
But it is above all the announcement of the creation of a training and excellence center for all the culinary professions in Lyon that everyone is talking about today. During his remarkable speech, the President of the Republic compared the great Chefs to great sportsmen and the future structure to the training center of the French national football team at Clairefontaine. This unique place will aim “to train for excellence, to train for major competitions and to prepare the athletes that you are to win on behalf of the colours of France”. But there must still be young people left to train so that one day they can reach this French flagship…We really have to worry about this phenomenon, which is not a passing one,” warns Christian Têtedoie. 47% of apprentices do not complete their training, and 40% of graduates leave the profession within five years. This year, for the first time, the hospitality public schools did not even fill up.
The 2021 Great Chef Dinner in Lyon © Guillaume Lamy
The return of recruitment days or how to attract talents?
All the good establishments are back at it and we have never seen so much communication around recruitment days in companies: on October 8 at the Meurice, on the 10th at the Royal Monceau, during the month at Bulgari Paris…
The Ile de France Chamber of Commerce and Industry even opened its fortnight dedicated to employment with a conference on the situation in the hotel and catering industry. But despite all these actions, jobs are still struggling to be filled, even though the hospitality industry is still looking for more than 250,000 new employees and other countries are doing quite well. So what are the solutions to get out of this crisis?
Between co-opting employees, shortened meal times for customers and multiple services, adapted hours and targeted applications for employees, everyone is opting for a different solution. There is even talk of a future “Top Salle” based on the same model as “Top Chef” to promote the restaurant professions to young people. Professionals doubt, however, that the 2.2% increase in the minimum wage for hospitality employees on 1 October or the tax exemption for tips will make a difference. A real increase in salaries seems necessary and only restaurant owners who have understood this are still attracting staff today.
Obviously, to compensate for wage increases, prices are likely to rise sharply and it is always the consumer who will have to pay!
A café at a terrace, soon to be a “French luxury”?
Article written by Talent Developer