Employment in the UK

A report commissioned by the British Hospitality Association and produced by Oxford Economics highlights the hospitality industry as being the FIFTH largest employer in the UK.

In these uncertain times it gives us assurance that the hospitality industry still has a strong foundation, employing over 2.4 million people, 400,000 of which are employed by hotels alone.

This emphasises the importance of the hospitality industry in the UK and especially for us in the North West and Lancashire area. The core hospitality economy has an estimated turnover of £90bn, contributing £34bn in gross tax revenue which I expect is a great help to the government in the current economic climate.

Here at Ashworth Treasure, being based on the Fylde Coast, we deal with a number of hotels and restaurants and in these gloomy times there are a lot of worried people. In 2009 the number of hotels that failed rose by 61%, mainly due to the continued slump in business travel and the banks reluctance to lend money. We did not see 2010 get off to a good start with the bad weather and volcanic ash saga.

Operationally hotels might have started to see light at the end of the tunnel with increased occupancy levels and higher daily rates, let’s just hope the upward trend continues until we reach the end.

Ashworth Treasure accountants has many hoteliers as clients and the trend we have seen is that they are turning to us for more and more help and advice. Specifically in the preparation and interpretation of management information.

We also specialise in giving hoteliers tax and business advice, whether it be buying or selling their hotel, tax planning - you name it! So if you are based in the North West area, such as Lytham or Blackpool and need some business advice, give us a call.