The government’s vouchers have contributed to up to half of restaurants’ business although it has not achieved the expected results, a survey has revealed.

The survey was conducted by the Association of Catering Establishments whose members expressed concern that their business will plummet once people use their vouchers.

The association said in a statement that while half the respondents claimed that up to 25% of the sales were brought about by the vouchers, showing that they had little to no effect on their sales, a quarter stated that up to 50 per cent of their sales came from these vouchers.

A tenth of the respondents claimed up to 75% of their sales were brought about by the voucher scheme.

“The government vouchers, aimed at aiding the economy during the turbulent period of the COVID-19 pandemic, started being distributed on July 8. The vouchers did not bring about the expected numbers so far albeit it is still helpful in the situation,” the association said.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents agreed that the vouchers will help restaurants recover from the blow their business had sustained. Five per cent disagreed with the idea.

The association said there was a significant amount of restaurants that still did not accept the vouchers as they have not received the promised registered letter to download the app. It said there was also discrimination as the catering establishments in clubs were also being allowed to accept the blue vouchers for retail.

The restaurateurs had mixed feelings on the removal of the non-smoking policy, although most agreed that it benefited the majority of the restaurants.

Unsurprisingly, almost 40 per cent said the removal of the non-smoking policy resulted in more sales while 17.5 per cent of respondents did not sell more after the removal of the policy. The rest had no opinion on the matter.

The vast majority (57.5%) of the respondents did not want the ban on smoking to be reinstated, compared to the 17.5% that want it reintroduced in restaurants. The remaining 25% answered that they are still indecisive on the matter.

80 per cent of respondents claimed that they had not received any complaints from other customers because of people smoking whilst seated on tables since the ban was lifted.

“With the tourism industry still recovering, the situation is still a very delicate one, but certain problems such as a long waiting time for voucher registration should all be addressed as this could bring to an end the running of several restaurants and other catering establishments,” the association said.