Survey on post-lockdown priorities throws up interesting facts

LOOKING ahead to a post-lockdown world, South Africans most look forward to going to a restaurant for dinner as this, along with spending time with family, is one of the most missed activities by the majority of the population.

These sentiments were captured in a snap digital survey undertaken on 9 and 10 April by the Mozambik restaurant group, which garnered almost 600 responses during the 36-hour period.

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‘Digital and social media allowed us to interrogate various strata in the population,’ said Mozambik CEO, Manny Nichas.

‘We wanted to get a feeling of sentiments out there after two weeks of lockdown and the announcement of a further extension until the end of April.’

Fifty-four per cent of the population voted in favour of social distancing becoming the ‘new norm’ once lockdown life comes to an end.

Divided up into almost equal thirds, 32% of respondents admitted to experiencing cabin fever during lockdown, with 31% saying the opposite and 36% ‘sometimes’.

An overwhelming 67% said they missed going out to dinner, the cinema, the theatre and casinos, while 54% miss spending time with family and friends.

At 21%, shopping for anything but groceries ranked as the third highest most-missed activity, while just 18% of respondents miss work.

Fifty-eight per cent of those surveyed are keeping themselves busy by dividing up household chores and maintenance, while 59% are working from home and 37% are reading, watching TV or sleeping.

A staggering 73% of respondents will go to a restaurant as their first post-lockdown activity, while just 8% said they would go gaming or go to the movies and 11% want to go to the mall.

As a behavioural outcome of lockdown, 28% said they would likely not go out too often, while 24% said they would prefer to continue working from home and 13% said ordering-in dinner would become their norm as opposed to going out to restaurants.

On a more serious note, 63% of respondents are concerned over the economy and job security, while 51% are not convinced Covid-19 would have been contained by the time lockdown comes to an end.

On the tourism front, 36% said they would enjoy local, self-drive holidays once lockdown is lifted, 19% said local holidays via air travel would be their choice, 28% look forward to regional beach holidays, while only 13% said international holidays remained a possibility.

‘I can certainly identify with the results of the snap survey,’ said Nichas.

‘We are all uncertain, crave a measure of social interaction, albeit likely different from before in terms of levels of engagement, while experiencing quite a lot of stress about the economy and security of income.

‘We need one another more than ever and as communities we must stand together and support each other.’

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