Mashed Highlights Fast-Food Restaurant Ban
Food-centric website Mashed has highlighted the island’s legislation banning the establishment of foreign franchise fast food restaurants, saying “legislation passed in 1977 aimed to preserve Bermuda’s Old World image, retaining the vibe and atmosphere that contributes to the island’s tourism industry.”
The Mashed story said, “Travel to Bermuda and you might notice something odd. As you drive around the island, you won’t spot any golden arches or red-haired little girls hawking burgers, or even a mustachioed king with his crown and Whoppers. Fast-food restaurants are banned in Bermuda and have been for decades.
“Legislation passed in 1977 aimed to preserve Bermuda’s “Old World image,” retaining the vibe and atmosphere that contributes to the island’s tourism industry [via The Spokesman-Review]. The legislation was revised years later just in time to derail plans for McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants.”
“Today, only a single fast-food restaurant exists in Bermuda. A Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant that opened in the 1970s was permitted to remain open after the harsher legislation on foreign franchises was passed. Otherwise, the Bermuda government considers prohibited establishments as any “restaurant which is operated in any matter, whether through distinctive name, design, uniforms, packaging, decoration, or otherwise, which reasonably suggests a relationship with any restaurant or group of restaurants operating outside Bermuda.”
You can read the full story here on the Mashed website.
The Prohibited Restaurant Act 1977 — which took effect back in 1997 — follows below [PDF here]:
