DIGITAL CERTIFICATE - OPPORTUNITY OR BARRIER IN THE RESTAURANT ACTIVITY? YOUNG PEOPLE'S OPINION ON THE FEELING OF HEALTH SAFETY IN PUBLIC EATING PLACES

Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, several measures have been taken, in the hope of protecting human health and maintaining the economy and various industries at a functional level. One such measure was the introduction of the Covid-19 digital certificate for access to restaurants. This study aims to find out the opinion of young people about the feeling of health safety in public food establishments, as well as the opinion about the opportunity or barrier that arises from the use of the Covid-19 certificate. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted between October 14 and 20, 2021. For this study, university students and high school students were surveyed, the data being collected from 102 respondents, through a self-administered online questionnaire. The main objectives were to find out the level of knowledge of the Covid-19 digital certificate concept among young people, the feeling of health safety that the certificate generates among young people and the opinion about the opportunity or barrier that comes with its implementation. The results showed that all young people know the concept, but mainly tend to consider that the usage of the certificate doesn`t generate an environment with an increased health safety in the restaurant or do not have an idea yet formed on this subject. More than two-thirds of the young people surveyed consider the certificate to be more of a barrier than an opportunity for the restaurant activity. At the same time, it turned out that girls are more skeptical than boys about the impact on health safety generated by the implementation of the certificate. The main limitation of this study is that the sample was small and unrepresentative, but nevertheless some interesting results were obtained.