Corporate insolvencies are down but the hospitality and leisure industry has been hit hard in the past year, latest statistics reveal.
Analysis of corporate insolvency numbers by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that hospitality and leisure was one of the worst-off sectors in the 12 months to the end of September compared to the same period a year earlier.
There were 1,464 company failures in the sector in the past year against 1,304 in the same period in the previous 12 months.
Despite this rise, hospitality and leisure insolvencies in the third quarter were down by 15% compared to the previous three months, and were down by 11% compared to the same quarter last year.
The worst-affected sectors in the third quarter include construction (631 insolvencies) manufacturing (392), retail (346), hospitality & leisure (299) and real estate (139).
However, the number of insolvencies across most areas of hospitality and leisure dropped between the two quarters apart from gambling and sport.
The biggest drop was seen in hotels, which saw a 43% fall, followed by travel and tourism which saw a 40% drop.
PwC found that nine travel and tourism businesses failed in the last quarter, down from 15 in the previous three months and 10 in the same period last year. The number of insolvencies in travel and tourism so far this year totalled 37 while the number of hotels going to the wall amounted to 137.
After reaching a high level at the end of 2011 and into the start of 2012, the level of collapses in hospitality and leisure has steadily fallen since the first quarter of this year, driven by a reduction in insolvencies for pubs and restaurants, according to PwC.
Restaurants were the worst hit of all hospitality and leisure sectors in the third quarter, with 156 insolvencies across the UK.
PwC business recovery partner and hospitality and leisure specialist David Chubb said: “Only time will tell if H&L insolvencies continue to decline beyond the Christmas period, but certainly recessionary pressures on leisure spend will continue over the next 12 months.”