Battle to win back customers in Harrogate still ongoing says Harrogate BID

Harrogate BID says the reopening of bars, cafes and restaurants at the weekend has taken us 'one step closer' to normality for the town centre but expressed caution that there was some distance still to go.
A couple are pictured enjoying a bit to eat outside LMDC Expresso Bar on John Street in Harrogate on Saturday as the hospitality sector started to reopen after lockdown. (Picture Gerard Binks)A couple are pictured enjoying a bit to eat outside LMDC Expresso Bar on John Street in Harrogate on Saturday as the hospitality sector started to reopen after lockdown. (Picture Gerard Binks)
A couple are pictured enjoying a bit to eat outside LMDC Expresso Bar on John Street in Harrogate on Saturday as the hospitality sector started to reopen after lockdown. (Picture Gerard Binks)

Last Saturday may have seen the biggest general footfall of people in the town centre since lockdown but the business group is flagging up that this does not yet mean a return to pre-Covid-19 levels of business for beleaguered traders.

Harrogate Business Improvement District's acting chair Sara Ferguson said shops and other traders seemed to have done steady rather then spectacular business at the weekend as the hospitality sector reopened for the first time in more than three months within the safety precautions laid out by the Government.

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She said: “The reopening of the hospitality industry has taken us one step closer to Harrogate town centre returning to normal.

“Having shops, cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants open gives customers more reasons for them to venture back into town.

“Being the owner of a centre café and restaurants – and speaking to colleagues in the industry - I would describe trade as steady."

The BID leading figure, who co-owns Sasso restaurant and Marconi cafe in Princes Square in Harrogate, said businesses had done a good job of responding to the Government's guidelines on reopening but the battle to bring back customers to the numbers seen at normal times had not yet been won.

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Sara Ferguson said: “For the last three months people have switched their habits, and this includes shopping and socialising.

"Businesses have responded professionally with social distancing in place and door staff were controlling numbers of customers entering individual premises.

"We now need to get them back into their old ways, by making Harrogate as welcoming, attractive and accommodating as possible and giving them a variety of reasons to return.”

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