• With the health pass, "we are asked to do things that go far beyond our skills," said the head of the Union of hospitality trades and industries in Gironde.

  • Restaurateurs and cafetiers are particularly concerned about having to manage conflicting situations with customers.

  • Professionals are also worried about a drop in attendance, like the Cité du Vin which has recorded 30% fewer customers since the application of the pass.

It is therefore recorded. The Constitutional Council validated the extension of the health pass to restaurants, bars and cafes, from August 9. A measure that makes professionals cringe, although most should apply it without complaint.

"We have always defended being associated with the fight against Covid-19, and we of course prefer to remain open in protocols established with the authorities, underlines Laurent Tournier, president of the Union des métiers et des industries de l ' hotel (Umih) of the Gironde.

On the other hand, we regret not having been included in this device earlier, and that there was a lack of anticipation, knowing that the application of this measure is coupled with an acute personnel problem.

We want to be the tool, but not the hostage, and there we are asked to do things that go far beyond our skills.

"

"Our initial request was to limit the pass to the interiors of establishments"

Laurent Tournier explains that the feedback from professionals is “quite variable. "" Several are still worried. A brasserie, a café, it is not a nightclub where there are already customer filtering habits. We are not gendarmes, this is what Philippe Etchebest wanted to show in his little humorous video. For some restaurateurs, this should not pose too much difficulty, I am thinking in particular of those who do not have a large number of covers, and for whom the verification of the pass should be done quite easily, but for the largest establishments, in terms of organization it will be more complex. Take cafes with large terraces for example ... Our initial request was to limit the pass to the interiors of establishments. "

It is above all the fear of tension with customers that restaurateurs and cafetiers fear.

“How do you manage a table of six where one person doesn't have their pass?

What do we do if four people sit on the terrace, which we will have to control once seated but who will not want to get up?

There will be extremely complicated moments to manage, and we will inevitably enter into conflictual situations, at a given time when the population is a little tense, ”analyzes Laurent Tournier.

"We want to avoid any problem in our establishment"

Manager of the new Renaissance hotel in Bassins à Flot, where the Gina restaurant on the ninth floor has always been full since it opened last June, Cedric Decaudin explains for his part that he is doing everything to avoid precisely this risk of conflict.

“For the hotel, customers must show us their sanitary pass at reception to access the rooms, and to facilitate their access to the restaurant, they will be equipped with a badge on their key to go directly to their table. For those from Bordeaux who want to go there, as well as to our cocktail bar, they will obviously have to show us their sanitary pass. This will force us to hire an additional person at the reception to check everyone, with the Anti-Covid Verif application. "For groups and seminars going to the hotel," we ask the organizer to send us all the health passes in advance, continues the manager. Everything we ask of customers is in their best interest, because we want to avoid any problems in the establishment. "

30% drop in attendance at the Cité du Vin

Laurent Tournier is also worried about a risk of "customer disaffection", after noting a drop in attendance in cultural establishments which already apply the health pass.

This is the case at the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux, which had to refuse… 500 people the first week of application of the pass.

"Either they were not aware of the measure, or they were in the middle of a group of people who were vaccinated, but they were not," explains Solène Jaboulet, marketing and communication director of the cultural establishment.

Not to mention the people who had anticipated and who did not come knowing that they could not enter.

It is estimated to have suffered a loss of about 30%.

"

A tent to get tested

In an attempt to remedy this, the Cité du Vin has decided to install a screening tent in front of the entrance since July 30, where customers can be tested, with results provided within a quarter of an hour. “We have twenty to thirty people taking the test every day, which allows them to enter the City freely afterwards [if the test is negative]. We took this initiative because the pharmacies in the area already have their calendars full and no longer take without an appointment. "

The particularity of the Cité du Vin is also to be equipped with a restaurant, Le 7, on the seventh floor.

An additional complication from August 9?

"On the contrary, it will be easier for us," says Solène Jaboulet.

Today people can go to our restaurant without a sanitary pass, but we do not want them to mingle with other visitors to the City, so we block them at the entrance, and we call the restaurant so that someone come and escort them, on the way there as well as on the way back… ”Some people will therefore have a headache to manage less.

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