Batumi restaurants were allowed to resume their work on March 1, but despite this, most facilities have not opened.

Restaurant owners say that reopening  makes no sense under the tight regulations, curfew and a lack of tourists. The facilities, which despite the problems, have opened, meet customers with strict norms and hiked prices.

According to Director of the Deliria restaurant Nino Gabunia, the number of clients has dramatically decreased.

“Due to the lack of tourists, we mainly focus on local clients. Batumi facilities  are active in the summer, during the tourist. The number of clients makes  no more than 30% of the previous year’s figure. Due to the growth of utility tariffs, we were forced to increase prices,” she notes.

In Gabunia’s words,  the management  cut the staff to keep our facility  until better times.

“Our task is to retain staff, not to go bankrupt, and to keep our restaurant  until August when we’ll get on our feet a little. We have opened but if the attendance is low, we will have to close. Now we are trying to cut costs, buy a minimum amount of products, ” Nino Gabunia explains.

Maya Ananidze, Director at Broceuli restaurant, says that despite the visitors are served both in the interior and on the verandas  their number hasn’t  increased and prices have risen  by 30-50%.

“Due to the devaluation of the national currency, all products have risen in price and we have to increase prices for dishes. This is a very serious problem amid the lack of foreign tourists and a decline in the income of the local population,” she notes.

Maya Ananidze adds that the restaurant's management pins its hopes on the summer season but is aware that it will not be as successful as before the pandemic.