Scott closed the doors to Avida Bar in May last year, citing the worst conditions he\u2019d seen in hospitality in Wellington since becoming involved in the area in 1987.<\/p>\n
In January 2024, Scott closed brewery, restaurant and pub Whistling Sisters, which was opened in 2018 in memory of his daughter Karen, who died from breast cancer in 2015.<\/p>\n
The Herald has contacted Scott for comment.<\/p>\n
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Kristy Phillips told the Herald it has been a challenging couple of years for Wellington\u2019s hospitality sector.<\/p>\n
\u201c[This is] due to a number of factors including, reduced discretionary spend; the shift to remote work resulting in reduced CBD foot traffic; ongoing roadworks; rising operational costs \u2026\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But Phillips said while trading conditions remain tough for hospitality businesses, the economic outlook is one of cautious optimism. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite some hospitality businesses closing, new ones continue to open and others look to rebrand or reinvent themselves to fit with changing trends and consumer preferences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of accommodation and food service businesses in Wellington has increased by 14% since pre-Covid times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips said there is a sign of confidence in the capital\u2019s hospitality sector and wider economic conditions will continue to improve throughout the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnecdotal commentary from our members is that the summer trade so far has been really positive and there is clear evidence of vibrancy in [Wellington].\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, popular Wellington pub Fortune Favours closed its brew bar<\/a> after nearly a decade.<\/p>\n Owners Shannon Thorpe and Dale Cooper said the business was no longer financially sustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, the cost of living crisis has proven too difficult for us to navigate. We\u2019re down 20% on last year, which was already 25% down on the year before,\u201d a post on the company\u2019s social media read.<\/p>\n The economic crunch also claimed other Wellington establishments including wine bar Plonk<\/a> and games store and cafe Caffeinated Dragon Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott closed the doors to Avida Bar in May last year, citing the worst conditions he\u2019d seen in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,9526,30084,137967,138,1882,651,17163,6741,15557,137966,5268,4486,111,139,69,1118,1551,61,52,15900,1533,102,1530],"class_list":["post-232421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-another","tag-beer","tag-belgian","tag-business","tag-cafe","tag-close","tag-closure","tag-doors","tag-hospitality","tag-leuven","tag-lose","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-set","tag-to","tag-wellington","tag-wellingtons","tag-will","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}