The precarious nature of Christmas markets during COVID

Originally a German tradition, Christmas markets arrived in the UK in 1999 and have been popular with tourists ever since. Most large cities hold their own variation for a few weeks during the festive season, serving mulled wine and delicious food, and giving people the chance to stock up on some last-minute Christmas gifts from boutique traders and independent businesses.

Many Christmas markets were cancelled in 2020, due to the rise in Covid infections and implementation of the regional tier system. This year, a lot of markets have gone ahead, despite the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant and the rapidly-altering rules and restrictions.

The imposition of new restrictions will inevitably impact many industries and sectors, especially hospitality and events, but for something as short-lived and temporary as Christmas markets, even the smallest changes to government guidance could prove disastrous.

Any new measures put in place would likely have a damaging effect on the market, such as travel restrictions, limits on the number of people allowed to visit, or mandatory vaccine passports, but the worst-case scenario would be complete cancellation of the market or a national lockdown.

Stallholders could drop out of events at any minute; they may be required to isolate, for example. In this scenario, the organisers would look to quickly replace them, or risk disappointing visitors if there aren’t enough stalls. Potentially, the entire thing could be called off, and organisers might be obliged to refund the traders their stall fee. This, however, would be devastating to many of the traders—some can earn almost an entire year’s income from their Christmas stalls and market appearances.

In these precarious times, it would be prudent for stallholders to establish alternative income streams, in case the markets they’ve booked into are cancelled; however, most small businesses are still reeling from the lockdowns of 2020/early 2021, and could still be in debt from bounce back loans, etc. There is also the issue that many of the traders sell edible items and perishable food, which, if the market was called off, may need to be thrown away—resulting in even more lost revenue.