The recovery in UK hospitality was “largely pre-booked and prepaid” during the pandemic and not the product of new bookings, leaving the outlook for the rest of the year “unclear”, according to UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls.
She warned: “The next 18 months will be as difficult to navigate as Covid. Things are not going to settle down. Change and instability will be the new normal for hospitality.”
Nicholls told a recent Tourism Society Scotland symposium in Edinburgh: “It’s difficult to predict how consumers will react to 10% inflation. You have to go back 40 years to recall as inflationary a cycle.
“Demand is strong, as is the willingness and confidence to travel. [But] we’re looking at a two to three-month booking window for international visitors when it was 12-15 months previously and that will stick because of the cost of living.”
She noted: “Volumes remain stubbornly below 2019. April provided the first clear view of trading, but the recovery in the second half of this year is unclear.”