[News Today] BUSINESSES’ YEAR-END SALES FALL

[LEAD]
The economy is tough enough and yet with the martial law and impeachment chaos, local markets are struggling to make ends meet. Facing a flood of cancellations, restaurants are apparently throwing away huge amounts of food. Here's their story.

[REPORT]
This restaurant near Seoul City Hall gets many group reservations.

Expecting a busy holiday season, it had come up with new menus and increased its staff.

But about a third of the reservations were cancelled.

This is their reservation list.

Kwon Byeong-geun / Restaurant Manager
There are lots of erased parts and hand-written cancellations.

Choi Yu-gyeong / KBS Reporter
December, with many gatherings, is an important time for small businesses.

Expenses are steady each month, but most revenue is generated at the end of the year.

Declining year-end sales means they could suffer an annual deficit.

Kwon Byeong-geun / Restaurant Manager
Our revenue roughly triples at the end of the year, so we prepare that much more.

Food ingredients are already quite expensive.

But what happens to the stocked meat, fish, and vegetables?

Cheon Geum-dan / Restaurant Owner
I threw them all away. I threw away batches of perilla leaves and lettuce.

Lodging businesses were also hit hard.

The number of foreign tourists, which seemed to be on the rise for a while, has dropped significantly.

Cancellation emails flood the inbox.

Lee Gwan-cheol / Lodging Facility Owner
Cancellations compared to last month has doubled. Revenue has been halved.

Some countries had even issued a travel alert for Korea recently.

It's unknown how long it will take for the situation to improve.

Lee Gwan-cheol / Lodging Facility Owner
I think it will take at least three months.

KBS requested Korea Credit Data to analyze nationwide restaurant card sales.

The number fell nine percent in the first week of December, immediately after the short-lived martial law. It slightly improved in the second week, but was still down from last year.

Given that this year's dining-out costs are over two percent higher than a year earlier...

the rate of decrease in sales felt by businesses is inevitably in the double digits.