Coronavirus: West End suffers as Asian tourists stay away
The impact of the coronavirus scare has spread from Chinatown to much of the West End as high-spending Asian tourists stay away.
Restaurants in areas such as Mayfair and Knightsbridge reported a slump in trade in the past fortnight, although most of the rest of the capital does not yet seem to have been hit.
Adam Hyman, founder of the Code Hospitality consultancy, said: Lots of West End hoteliers and restaurants have been severely impacted in the last couple of weeks. All the big restaurants and hotels say there are just no Chinese customers.
Flight analysts ForwardKeys said its latest data showed bookings from China to Europe for March and April are 36.7 per cent down on last year.
Chef Adam Handling said that at his Covent Garden flagship Frog “this week and las...