As we enter the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have an opportunity to look back at what the last year has meant for the hospitality industry — and look ahead at how we can recover.

The hospitality industry has been hit the hardest of any industry in the state, by far.

As the largest private employer in the state, we lost a third of jobs almost overnight last March when restaurants were shut down.

Since then, 202,248 people who work in food service have filed unemployment claims. Billions of dollars vanished from the hospitality industry in our state in every single quarter of the pandemic.

In Benton and Franklin counties, about $10 million per month has vanished from the hospitality industry. And that
$10 million isn’t just hitting restaurants: For every dollar spent in a restaurant in average times, 96 cents is reinvested in the community.

The money goes to pay employee wages and to local food suppliers, wineries and breweries. This has a multiplier effect, meaning every dollar spent in a restaurant benefits many more industries and businesses than, say, a dollar spent at an online retailer that vanishes from our local economy instantly.

This huge loss has translated to an onslaught of closures.

Nationwide, Washington’s restaurants are among the hardest hit.

According to a presentation to the state Legislature by Yelp, Washington state has the fifth highest closure rate in the nation.

We estimate 35% of restaurants will close by this fall. That’s one in three dreams crushed.

Already, thousands of restaurants in our state have closed permanently. In the first six months of the pandemic, 40 restaurants in Benton and Franklin counties closed their doors forever.

As I write this column in early March, our industry is allowed 25% indoor dining capacity and most restaurants that are still open are losing around $18,000 per month at that level.

Hotels are in a similar position: As of December, revenue per room was down 53.2% from the same time last year.

The busy travel months disintegrated, and the American Hotel and Lodging Association estimates that 49% of hotels will face foreclosure without congressional help.

It’s a bleak picture — but we see a path to recovery.

First, we must reopen restaurants to help stop the spread of Covid-19. That may seem counterintuitive, but it’s not: Contact tracing in our state showed that less than 1% of cases were traced to restaurants.

When indoor dining was shut down entirely, cases skyrocketed.

When indoor dining was reopened, cases dropped and have continued to drop.

On top of that, states with mask mandates and 50% indoor dining capacity had the lowest Covid-19 rates and lowest death rates.

All the data we have points to the fact that Washington restaurants, which have among the strictest safety standards in the nation, are part of the solution — not part of the problem.

And that’s where the good news is: We can help jump-start our economy, multiply the impact of our dollars, and save local businesses all while reducing the spread of Covid-19. Remember, 96 cents of every dollar spent at a restaurant is reinvested in the local community — so every one of us can multiply the impact of our spending by supporting local restaurants.

Anthony Anton is president and chief executive officer of the Washington Hospitality Association.