Tromsø will replace the bar stop with the traffic light scheme – E24

– This bar has taken a mega beating, says Anders Eide in Tromsø Mikrobryggeri.

He runs Tromsø’s smallest bar in the middle of Storgata, where revenue has dropped by 80 percent after authorities introduced the subway rule and saw a bar stand up since midnight. With the one meter distance rule between guests, you have room for 17 people in the small room, and the bar stop doesn’t make it profitable to stay open.

– For us, the stop of the spill is dramatic. Here we have 20 percent of the normal turnover, he says and offers coffee in the rustic room.

Extend the pour stop

Now he and the Tromsø industry want to replace bar stops with red, yellow and green traffic lights to serve alcohol.

– We propose that the municipality of Tromsø become a pilot municipality for a traffic light scheme for the nightlife industry. Tromsø is a professional nightlife city. If we succeed, this may be a nationwide solution, says Trude Nilsen, director of the Business Association in the Tromsø region.

On Wednesday, Health and Care Services Minister Bent Høie held a press conference in which they said they will look at experiences after just over three weeks with bars and pubs closing at midnight. In the meantime, the current rules will continue until further notice.

– Punished for «southern» parties

The plan will be based on the infection situation in society. The low infection gives the green light and only a ruler a meter away.

At medium infection pressure it turns yellow and is only open for table service places. Only with high infection and red light will the spill stop at midnight.

– Tromsø is a professional nightlife city, you can follow these rules and drive a pilot. Our nightclubs have invested a lot of resources in training employees in infection control, says Sheilan Ghadani, general manager in Tromsø city center.

Both Eide and business associations in the Tromsø area believe that the nightlife industry outside of Oslo is severely punished by some parties in the Oslo area that got out of control.

– Because some bad party in the south, here they punish us even though we have little contagion and good control of the discos. Quitting drinking nationally is too easy, says Eide.

He believes that many of Tromsø’s students and adults will host house parties in the fall, and that this can lead to an increased risk of infection. A system with traffic lights will motivate both people and industry to follow infection rules, while a ban on alcoholic beverages is demotivating to all parties, the initiators believe.

– It is much better for professional nightclubs to observe the subway rule than for people to stand in line at the pole and find a nice cave to have fun, says Ghadani.

He has contacted Høie

Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen in Tromsø has contacted Health Minister Bent Høie and proposed that municipalities themselves can decide on bar rules in collaboration with industry. The Mayor supports the proposal for Tromsø to pilot the nightlife industry.

– I like the idea of ​​Tromsø being a test pilot. I contacted Høie and suggested that municipalities manage the dumping in teams with industry at the local level, says Wilhelmsen.

Tromsø has 120 pubs and has a long tradition of being a great nightlife city. In recent years, the city’s many restaurants and bars have benefited from the rapid growth of tourists, and this year they have been hit hard by travel restrictions from foreign tourists. Stopping drinking leads to a further drop in income.

– We had zero point zero in income in March, April and May. It improved a bit in June and this summer, but then faded again with the stoppage of the spill, Eide says.

– The safest thing would have been to close, but it is an incredibly idiotic way of thinking if society is going to turn around, he adds.

iTromsø has not contacted Health Minister Bent Høie.