Why are people saying that ‘if a restaurant can, a theme park can’. A restaurant is far easier to control in terms of customer flow and hygiene standards.
I work for a popular national casual dining chain and it’s been a challenge just to get some of these measures in place, and we’re blessed with perhaps a more medium-sized building with less contact points where perhaps it’s easier to control. Granted, we have different buildings and slightly different layouts across the country, but as far as standardised social distancing measures go, it’s easier to scale up. We already have access to PPE & gloves as we always have done for every member of staff; I’m guessing a theme park wouldn’t have that kind of stock so would have to source it to cater for everybody.
But some of the measures we’ve installed JUST for Deliveroo are Perspex screens everywhere, taped markings, no one being allowed inside the building unless you’re an employee, etc. And we only have a medium sized building to think about with a limited number of contact points. A theme park on scale is far bigger, and will take a lot more man-power to enforce, keep clean and hygienic, and maintain social distancing. There’s measures for us which make it easier (reducing table counts for example, removing refill drinks, removing sauce bottles, disposable menus, screens to protect staff, etc.) which can help. We can operate therefore on a reduced staff level, because we have less customers, so it makes it far easier for us to manage and return a profit, even if it’s a reduced one.
I don’t see how you can compare a medium sized restaurant operation to a large scale Theme Park operation. It’s a silly comparison to make.
Imagine having to enforce every element of safety and social distancing in every park restaurant, shop, queue line, pathway, ride station, staff area, etc. Much harder to control and tons more policies and procedures would need to be in place than a restaurant would need.