Update: Amid Tourism Crisis and LRCVB Cancellations, Casinos Shut Down

If you doubt that the ground is shifting fast in the age of COVID-19, consider Montine McNulty’s evolving view of the effects on restaurant business.

At 10:40 a.m. Friday, she said she’d noticed little effect of a coronavirus-related downturn in restaurants, one of McNulty’s main constituencies as executive director of the Arkansas Hospitality Association.

By 2:50 that afternoon, McNulty was calling back. “I just wanted to tell you I've gotten three calls this afternoon from restaurants that are really suffering and having big problems,” she said. “The smaller the restaurant, the bigger the problems, cash flow wise.”

By Sunday night, all dine-in restaurants and bars were closed in downstate New York and Massachusetts, and a California decree closed all bars and set restaurant seating capacity at 50%.

And on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump cited new official guidance for Americans to avoid travel, avoid restaurants and bars and shun meetings with more than 10 people. By Tuesday morning, the city of Fayetteville had restricted all restaurants and bars to 50 percent of capacity.

On Tuesday, with the number of Arkansas COVID-19 cases holding at 22 but expected to rise, Gov. Asa Hutchinson ordered the state's casinos closed for two weeks. The state's casinos are in Pine Bluff, at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs and Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis. The Pine Bluff and West Memphis gambling halls had already announced closures.

Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. declared a city curfew Monday from midnight to 5 a.m., essentially making nightlife after midnight illegal. The curfew won't apply to people working overnight hours, he said. The mayor also called for the cancellation of all gatherings of 50 people or more, all toward the goal of "social distancing."

At market close Monday, a shaken stock market had plummeted again, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2,997 points, or 12.9%, in its second worst day of trading ever. On Tuesday, the Dow regained a third of what it had lost the day before, but markets remained volatile.

Restaurants were in a crisis, and McNulty was sounding the alarm, pleading for help for both restaurants and hotels, her other big constituency: 

“This economic impact speaks to the urgency and severe crisis of our hotel industry. Help is needed!” said McNulty, who is also CEO of the trade group. (Full statement below.)

Gretchen Hall, executive director of the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, reported that 21 events planned in Little Rock had been canceled and 29 gatherings postponed for rescheduling. All had originally been planned from March 12 to the first week of May, she said.

"Our situation is very fluid as our sales and operations teams work diligently to reschedule and accommodate all necessary events utilizing our facilities," Hall told Arkansas Business.

Several other organizations planning events have inquired "about possible alternative dates but have yet to make an official decision," Hall said.

Chick-fil-A Inc., which has dozens of locations in Arkansas, was one of many restaurants announcing the closing of its dining rooms, planning instead to sell food for pickup either inside stores or through drive-through windows. Irianna's Pizza in downtown Little Rock, among others, is also closed for dining, and new waves of closings were coming almost hourly Monday.

McNulty said cleaning crews were doubling down on sanitation, for the health of guests and employees. The hospitality industry follows protocols in confronting pathogens from the common cold to the flu, updating to stay aligned with the guidance from the Federal Centers for Disease Control, McNulty said.

Some hospitality companies are offering more hand sanitizer stations, she added, cleaning guest rooms more frequently and putting more alcohol in cleaning products, at least 60%, and laundry temperatures have been ramped up to 120 degrees. Alcohol and high temperatures kill the virus.

The disease is not food-borne, but the risk in restaurants would be touching infected surfaces or sitting near a coughing or sneezing person with the virus, experts said.

“The escalating public health crisis around COVID-19 and the evolving situation is an unpreceded and dramatic economic crisis that is affecting our employers and employees right now,” McNulty said.

Companies are honoring cancellations across the board, she said, urging travelers with changes to consult their brands’ websites. The U.S. hotel industry employs 8.3 million people directly and indirectly, the association says, serving 1.3 billion guests a year.

McNulty, working from industry talking points, said the industry needs swift action from the White House and Congress, including ensuring that small business have access to capital, credit and liquidity needed to survive and meet payroll, as well as debt forbearance and a stimulus package to support businesses and employees.

The novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, and has proven deadly in Italy and elsewhere, takes a greater toll on the elderly and chronically ill, but has also killed healthy young people in some cases. Overall, about 80 percent of patients get well on their own without major complications, and a small fraction are actually hospitalized. Still, the virus can also be spread by people who are infected but have only mild symptoms or none at all, the CDC said.

An experimental vaccine against the virus began preliminary testing Monday in Washington State. Any effective vaccine would be a game-changer in fighting the global pandemic, health officials said.