By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

CHINESE restaurants have experienced a drop in business which they attribute to rumours about the coronavirus, according to Brian Wong, president of the Chinese Community Association of The Bahamas.

He said yesterday: “The rumour I heard is, ‘don’t go to Chinese restaurants because the staff might have visited China and they may have come back with the disease because they went to celebrate the Chinese New Year’.”

Mr Wong said the Chinese New Year celebrations would not have started until January 25, meaning residents who travelled for the festival would either be denied entry to the Bahamas because of recently implemented travel restrictions or be quarantined upon arrival here.

The 70-year-old said rumours about Chinese people have always impacted Chinese restaurants, but the impact has intensified in the social media era.

He noted that unsubstantiated fears that Chinese restaurants were using gutter oil––oil recycled from waste oil––significantly impacted Chinese food businesses in 2018. “With social media, the rumours hurt more than ever before,” he said.

He said it will take a few more weeks to better determine how much coronavirus fears have impacted Chinese businesses.

“We have noticed a downturn in business because of these rumours. We’re still awaiting further feedback but the people I have spoken to believe there has been a drop,” he said.

The drop in business is also being experienced at Chinese establishments abroad.

The BBC reported that as fears about the deadly coronavirus intensify, restaurants in London’s Chinatown are seeing a downturn.

“It’s a hard time,” Martin Ma, general manager at the Jinli restaurant in London, told the BBC.

He told the BBC that confirmation of the first cases of the new coronavirus in the UK on Friday brought “immediate cancellations” with diners citing the virus as the reason.