The figures keep on growing

It’s a large number, 28 million. So large as to be almost incomprehensible. But the good news is, we only need to allow the joy of it to wash over us, since it is the number of visits made by overseas tourists to the UK in the first quarter of this year, according to the Great Britain Tourism Survey by Visit England.

This is a record for a single quarter in the UK and vindicates the assertion of many at the start of this year that 2015 would be a great year for hospitality. Every single one of those trips needed at least a room night, and a great many of them will have stayed longer, dined, and drank in in the bar.

There’s more. The UK topped Europe’s hotel development pipeline table again in June, with 72 hotels and 10,425 rooms under construction. Whilst this is not great in the simplistic sense that this makes the trading environment more competitive, it is also a powerful indicator of the confidence that firms have in Britain’s hotel market and its capacity for growth. You can be sure that where there is inward investment, there is belief that serious money can be made. Being in that market already? Well, you have everything to play for.

On a more sober note, one study we have reported on this month says that hoteliers need to get better at retaining staff: turnover in this industry is notoriously high and instead of accepting it as ‘coming with the territory’, says the study, employers need to be looking at ways of reducing it. Not just for the sake of employees, but for their own bottom line.