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ESCAPING COVID-19 UPDATE – IMPACT TO ESCAPE ROOM INDUSTRY

June 14, 2020 escape rooms

It has now been over six months since the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province and almost three months since our initial article, Escaping COVID-19.  To many it seems like it has been several years.  We continue to adjust and try to figure out a path forward to get back to the “new normal” while trying to minimize the risk of increasing the transmission of COVID-19.  Most if not all of us have heard the saying “we are all in this together” exemplifying how this pandemic is simultaneously affecting the entire globe.

Two crises resulted from COVID-19, a health crisis and an economic crisis.  As of June 12th, more than 7.7 million cases around the world have been confirmed with more than 2 million in the US [1].  As you have undoubtedly seen, countries are in various stages from when the disease first appeared to when each nation gets the transmission rate under control and the number of confirmed cases noticeably tails off. We will cover some countries later in this article.

IMPACT TO JOBS

According to countryecomony.com, the US unemployment rate was 13.3% (May) which has significantly increased, up 9.7% from 2019.  Canada has also seen a significant impact – the unemployment rate was 13.7%, up 8.3% from 2019. 

Impact to European states seemed to be much less (+/- percentage comparison to 2019):

  • Spain – 14.8% (April), +0.6%
  • Greece – 14.4% (March), -3.7%
  • Latvia – 9.0% (April), +2.7%
  • France – 8.7% (April), +0.2%
  • Lithuania – 8.6% (April), +2.6%
  • Sweden – 7.9% (April), +1.5%
  • Euro zone – 7.3% (April), -0.3%
  • Italy – 6.3% (April), -3.8%
  • Switzerland – 4.4% (March), -0.2%
  • UK – 3.9% (March), +0.1%
  • Germany – 3.5% (April), +0.3%

Other countries whose unemployment rate were impacted include (+/- percentage comparison to 2019):

  • South Africa – 29.1% (December), +2.0%
  • Uruguay – 10.5% (February), +2.1%
  • Australia – 6.2% (April), +1.0%
  • Russia – 5.8% (April), +1.1%

IMPACT TO THE ESCAPE ROOM INDUSTRY

Impact to small businesses was significant.  The most vulnerable industries are accommodations and food services, arts, entertainment, and recreation [2].  While small businesses are a recognized proving ground for entrepreneurs, a vibrant source of innovation and competition, and an essential source of employment, they are typically not geared to withstand this magnitude of an economic storm.

The Escape Room industry was no exception to facing this vulnerability.  Some have or are waiting out the virus / removal of restrictions, some have adapted, and some are taking advantage of the down time to create new rooms, expand and/or move to new locations.  Several are selling vouchers that can be redeemed later.  Some owners have questioned whether normal levels of business will return prior to early 2021.  Sadly, not every escape room owner was able to wait it out or is struggling (such as Escape My Reality in Stroudsburg PA), but hopefully they have found a way to get back on their feet.

One difficulty that many businesses faced (or are still facing) is the lack of communication from their local governments.  This is not a criticism but more acknowledgement of the difficultly of a situation we have not faced before (at least to this magnitude).  Businesses in the entertainment/leisure tend to be viewed as lower priority for reopening, so communication being provided by local governments is often ambiguous to these venues.  That makes it challenging to plan in terms of budgeting and being able to retain employees.

ONLINE ESCAPE ROOMS

On a brighter note, one noticeable area of expansion for the industry is in the development of online escape rooms.  We featured several posts in our Escape Room News, Reviews, and Articles of Interest – May 2020 post featuring online rooms and apps.  Over the past few months, escape rooms have been expanded to online games.  This expands their audience from local residents and visitors to anyone with an internet connection (> 4.5 billion). 

One featured post illustrates how creative escape room owners can be.  Rob Faiella, who owns Rock Avenue Escape Room in New Port Richey Florida, was laid off from his job as a computer programmer and was forced to shut the doors to his escape room business. But none of those two restrictions stopped him from keeping money flowing in as he took his escape room game online. A family of four can play for about $50, where Faiella guides them as the mayor of a small town using two iPhones strapped onto him.

We are compiling a catalog of online and download escape games from ER businesses.  If your game is not listed, give us a shout with your details!

BOARD GAMES AND APPS

It only makes sense that being confined in our homes might lead to playing more board games, including escape games.  This weekend Dawn, Ace, Amy, and I played Exit: The Haunted Roller Coaster.  We played another Exit game, The Secret Lab several months ago and really enjoyed it.  This one did not disappoint as well.  With us being in two separate states, we purchased two copies so each location could view and follow the progress.  We set up a video connection using FB messenger.

There are many board games, apps, puzzles, etc.  There are several cool VR apps (Oculus, STEAM, etc.) to entertain.  We are compiling a catalog of games.  NOTE: One thing I recently learned is VR escape games are typically limited to specific hardware (high-end, mid-range, low end).

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES?

If you recall from the last COVID-19 article, I said it wouldn’t surprise me if some started offering a virtual escape room that we could play at home using a home Virtual Reality (VR) system.  I’d love a setup where Dawn, Ace, Amy, and I could each have a VR headset (such as the Oculus Go) and play on online VR escape room.  I see both online and room VR as potential industry expanding capabilities.  Most owners may not have the skills to create their own VR room and hiring someone to create it could be cost-prohibitive specially during these times.  However, the market for this could be huge!

VR appears to be exploding these days.  Oculus hardware such as the Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Samsung Gear VR have been in high demand.  Oculus made $297 million in non-advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2020 [3].  The HTC VIVE Cosmos appears to be more readily available and will be interesting to see how it’s availability is affected in the next few months.

Do I dare mention this thought (purists, cover your ears! 😄)? If you are considering a VR room at your business, could that space and VR hardware be able to plug and play with other types of VR games (VR shooter)? Think about how that could expand your audience and business potential!

REOPENING ESCAPE ROOMS

As countries/states get into the latter stages of the virus (or at least past the peak) they are cautiously returning to normal or the “new normal”.  More precautions with safely protecting staff and customers will be essential and, in many cases, required.  Local governments are providing restrictions and guidelines, monitoring data, and slowly updating/removing these restrictions.  You’ve likely heard your government officials state that the brakes will be applied if the number of cases start to spike again.  Restrictions will likely be in place until one or more vaccines have been developed, tested, and approved.

In this article, I will cover several countries and expand on the US in a future article. As a person who is interested in the data, I have been tracking confirmed cases for several countries and US states.  I use the Hill equation/curve that I introduced in the previous COVID-19 article.  Here is example chart from the last article where I identify four stages:

Stage 1 is the early stages where transmission rate is increasing or sufficiently high such that the number of confirmed cases increases by day.  Stage 2 case counts reach and pass the inflection point where the number of additional cases per day has peaked and then begins to decrease.  Stage 3 represent the turning point where transmission rate and number of new daily cases has been significantly reduced. Stage 4 is the complete tail-off of new daily cases.

The uncertainty in the number of predicted cases is very high at Stage 1 and remains significant until the bending of the curve occurs at Stage 3.  The intent has been to keep the slope of the curve as flat as possible to not overtax our medical infrastructure. 

Let’s look at several countries for a COVID-19 update and business reopening.

UNITED STATES

As illustrated in this graph, the US is somewhere between Stage 2 and Stage 3.  While several states such as New York are in Stage 3, several are still in Stage 2.  Fourteen states have experienced recent spikes including California, Texas, and Florida.  Concerns have been raised regarding the large groups of individuals protesting who may not be following social distancing and/or wearing masks which can contribute to these spikes and the spread of the virus to police officers.

All states and U.S. territories have eased restrictions on businesses and social activity amid warnings from public health experts. 

Restaurants are opening to varying degrees of occupancy and indoor/outdoor dining. In most states, retail businesses are open. Bars have been reopening with varying restrictions such as not being able to go up to the bar to order.

Escape room businesses have been reopening across the country. Here is one of the first I heard about which illustrates the new precautions that are now in effect:

Alabama, Indiana, and Kansas allowed leisure spaces to reopen on May 22nd. Nevada and Pennsylvania allowed some entertainment venues to reopen at reduced capacity on May 29th.  Montana allowed entertainment venues to reopen on June 1st at reduced capacity.  Virginia allowed some entertainment venues to reopen on June 5th.  New Mexico allowed leisure venues to reopen in early June – New Mexico Escape Room opened on June 4th and Escape The Room Albuquerque reopened on June 12th.

We will provide an update for the US focusing on several states in a future article.

UNITED KINGDOM

As can be seen in this graph, the UK is in Stage 3. A study by the Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium (Cog-UK), documents that the UK’s coronavirus epidemic did not have one origin or single “patient zero”, but at least 1,356 origins..

Businesses are reopening and some children are back in school.  The original plan to return all children to school appears to have changed due to issues with physical distancing requirements, space constraints and staff shortages. Many of Europe’s internal borders reopened and there are hopes that external borders will be lifted from 1 July.

It appears that escape rooms in the UK remain closed.  I am hearing that Escape Rooms in Scotland will not be allowed to reopen until Phase 3 is in effect.  From the 454 businesses/locations we are tracking, we are not seeing any signs of permanent closure over the last 3 months.

Escape Room owners such as those at iLocked have prepared a new health and safety policy:

SPAIN

Spain is heading into the Stage 4 section of the graph.  Spain outlined a four-stage plan on May 4th to start easing one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.

Starting May 11th, customers were able to order a beer in a terrace bar, but bars and restaurants were scheduled to not fully reopen until June 10th, adhering to strict social distancing guidelines and only at 50% capacity

Cinemas, theatres and exhibitions began reopening on May 26th at 30% capacity. Outdoor concertsof up to 400 people are permitted with social distancing

On June 1st Spain moved to a second phase for 70% of Spaniards, but Madrid, Barcelona and some other regions remained under tighter phase-one restrictions. The state of emergency is scheduled to end on June 21st.

From what I can tell, escape rooms have not started to reopen.  One estimate was July. From the 638 businesses/locations we are tracking, we have seen few permanent closures. 

ITALY

Italy is also heading into Stage 4 of the graph.  Italy imposed a strict and lengthy lockdown on 7 March – initially in the north, then nationwide.

Bars and restaurants reopened on May 18th with a reduction in hosting numbers of diners, tables further apart and plastic shields to separate customers.  More shops, museums and libraries also reopened.   

Escape rooms are reopening.  Escape Room Cagliari – Alcatraz reopened in late May and Mad machines reopened on June 13th. From the 280 businesses/ locations we are tracking, we are not seeing any recent permanent closures. 

FRANCE

France is moving in to Stage 4 of the graph.  The multiple adjustments to the data resulted in some continuity issues and adds uncertainty to the predicted curve fit.

France’s strict lockdown was imposed on March 17th.  Restrictions began to ease on May 11th, and phase two of the easing began on June 2nd.

Nearly all of France is now in a “green zone”, where restrictions can ease faster. Paris has moved from a red to an orange zone.

Bars and restaurants can reopen in the green zone under phase two, with outside areas able to reopen in the orange zone. Parks and gardens in Paris can finally reopen

Escape rooms have started to reopen.  Le Passage opened on June 2nd. Escape Hunt Bordeaux opened on June 11th.  From the 337 businesses/locations we are tracking, we are not seeing any signs of permanent closure over the last few months.

GERMANY

Germany is moving into Stage 4 of the graph. Germany began reopening smaller shops in April. Shops smaller than 800 sq. m have been allowed to open since April 20th, alongside car dealerships, bicycle shops and bookshops. Shops of all sizes were later allowed to reopen, with extra hygiene and social distancing.

Escape rooms have been reopening.  Exit Sachsen Escape Games opened May 23rd, Illuminati Escape – Escape Room Berlin opened on June 5th and Exit – Live Escape Game opened on June 11th. From the 356 businesses/locations we are tracking, we have seen only one recent permanent closure.

CANADA

Canadian provinces have been releasing plans for easing restrictions that were put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. Newfoundland and Labrador entered “Alert Level 3” on June 8th.  This is part of a 5-stage reopening plan with Level 1 representing the “new normal”.  It’s not clear at which stage small entertainment/leisure venues will be allowed to reopen.

In Nova Scotia most businesses ordered shut in late March were allowed to reopen on June 5, if they have a plan that follows physical distancing protocols. The list of businesses includes bars and restaurant dining rooms, hair salons, barber shops, gyms and yoga studios, among others.

Prince Edward Island has extended its public health emergency until June 14. The province moved into the third phase of its reopening plan June 1, which allows such things as in-house dining at restaurants, small groups to participate in recreational and some sporting activities and libraries to reopen. Under phase 2, retail businesses could reopen with physical distancing measures in place.

New Brunswick moved to the “yellow phase” of its COVID-19 recovery plan on May 22.  Retail businesses, offices, restaurants, libraries, museums and seasonal campgrounds were earlier allowed to reopen providing they have clear plans for meeting public health guidelines.

In Quebec on May 25 some retail businesses reopened in the greater Montreal area. Quebec reopened retail stores outside Montreal on May 11. Shopping malls, nail salons and other personal care centers are also reopening, but only outside Montreal.  

Most Ontario regions outside the Toronto and Hamilton area could reopen more businesses on June 12 as the province moved to Stage 2 of its reopening strategy. The second stage includes restaurant patios. Most retail stores with a street entrance were allowed to reopen with physical distancing restrictions, and curbside pickup and delivery.

In Manitoba bars, and dine-in restaurants could reopen June 1st under limited capacity. Manitoba has extended a province-wide state of emergency until mid-June, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The third phase of Saskatchewan’s reopening plan started June 8. Restaurants and bars can open at half capacity, with physical distancing between tables.

In Alberta, everything from gyms and arenas to spas, movie theatres, libraries, pools and sports activities got the green light to reopen on June 12. Restaurants can open at full capacity, but no more than six people are allowed per table.

In British Columbia the provincial government allowed a partial reopening of the B.C. economy starting May 19. The reopening plans are contingent on organizations and businesses having plans that follow provincial guidelines to control the spread of COVID-19. Hotels, resorts and parks will follow in June.

The Northwest Territories announced on May 12 a three-phase reopening plan, but the government didn’t say when it would be implemented.   It’s unclear which stage and when reopening of businesses would occur. 

In Yukon bars with an approved health and safety plan may also reopen at half capacity under certain other restrictions starting June 19. Yukon has been gradually easing pandemic restrictions since May 15 with dine-in restaurants, day cares and recreational centers reopening.

Escape businesses are starting to reopen.  Exit Kelowna reopened on May 25th.  Exit Calgary opened on June 12th. From the 318 businesses/ locations we are tracking, we have seen a few permanent closures.

As you well know this information is constantly changing.  Some details may be out of date as of the post date.  If you are aware of any significant changes in details or inaccuracies, or would like us to note the opening of your business, please contact us with the details.

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