Coronavirus and its impact on UK hospitality: January 2020 to June 2021

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released a survey on the hospitality sector during coronavirus with a focus on the most recent easing of restrictions in spring 2021. This Includes details of how the sector has performed and the future of employment in hospitality.

The key findings are not unexpected and are summarised below:

Hospitality has been hit hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the impact has been uneven; bars and clubs have fared the worst, but campsites had a relatively better year than the rest of the sector.

Consumer spending on hospitality started to increase in May 2021 but remains at less than 70% of pre-pandemic levels; a similar picture is seen in turnover - in May this remained one-quarter lower than 2019 levels.

Spending by businesses in the hospitality sector has seen smaller increases compared with consumer spending in May 2021; payments to suppliers from food and drink businesses have remained around half of pre-pandemic levels.

Confidence of business survival in the hospitality sector started to increase in May 2021 but remains below the all-sector level.

Job vacancies in the hospitality sector have seen large increases and are higher than pre-pandemic levels; however, in June 2021, the number of employees within the sector remained 11% below February 2020 levels.

See: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/articles/coronavirusanditsimpactonukhospitality/january2020tojune2021