The coronavirus outbreak has been affecting the operations of businesses and the global economy. Due to the growing concern on the increasing coronavirus cases, people prefer to stay indoors and are lessening physical contact as much as possible. Aside from travel bans, businesses have been conducting their meetings, conferences and even events through digital platforms.
Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants originally set its awards ceremony on Mar. 24 in Kyushu, Japan. In line with the Japanese government’s advice to curb large-scale events, the health and safety of the industry people is still a top priority.
“This is an extremely difficult decision for us, as we very much wanted to support the restaurant industry across Asia, which has suffered from the side-effects of the coronavirus situation in recent weeks,” says Charles Reed, CEO of William Reed, the company behind Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
While organizers are reformatting the whole event proper, including food forums and the anticipated 50 Best Talks, the upcoming streamed awards ceremony is still keen on keeping the kind of prestige its name is built upon.
“It has become clear that, despite our best endeavors, it would not be responsible to stage our events as planned. However, we remain committed to announcing the new list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants on Mar. 24. We will continue working to support and promote great restaurants and great chefs in Asia, as we have done since the launch of Asia’s 50 Best in 2013,” Reed adds.
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