'It doesn’t seem the right time when the hospitality and restaurant sectors are suffering'

As many restaurants are still coming to grips with the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak on the hospitality industry, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has announced that it won't be holding its annual awards ceremony as planned.

Although it has already made its selection for the 2020 list, the William Reed Business Media group has decided not to push forward with the ceremony, supposed to be held in Antwerp, Belgium on June 2nd. 

This is despite its decision to go ahead with the Top 50 Restaurants in Asia last week, which director of content Wiliaml Drew said had been on the wishes of the chefs involved. 

As hundreds of thousands of people have tested positive for Covid-19 around the world, entire countries are on lockdown to try and slow its spread. The disease is expected to bring about many casualties, either directly from the disease or indirectly, by wreaking havoc on the world economy. 

Instead of holding the awards ceremony this year, The World's 50 Best will take place in 2021, if, as it is hoped, the industry has had some time to recover.

A statement issued by the organisation states that it will spend this year supporting "impactful initiatives that will help the world work together in this time of need, and using its network of contacts "to support and amplify programmes that will bolster businesses, while continuing its editorial campaign to support restaurants, restaurant workers and chefs."

William Drew told Bloomberg it was a "difficult" decision, but that "it doesn’t seem the right time when the hospitality and restaurant sectors are suffering. 

 “We still want to bring the leaders of the world of gastronomy together in a virtual world in order to help each other and exchange ideas and find ways to help each other.”  

“We’ll be working to try and see what we can do, how we can connect people, and how we can use our global audience to assist and put restaurants in a better place to recover.”