Hospitality in the News - 12 November 2020

Your latest instalment of articles and opinions from across the hospitality sector.

TW:thinkingdifferently

In a much needed boost after the worst possible year for many in the hospitality sector, Christmas has come early with the game-changing announcement of a workable vaccine.

That said, it's been a roller-coaster of a fortnight for the UK hospitality industry and there is a long way to go yet. First, Lockdown II was announced requiring the closure of almost all hospitality businesses except those providing takeaway. Early signs are that hospitality businesses may take an even bigger hit this time round – pub operator JD Wetherspoon, for example, is expecting a cash burn of £14m a month whilst its pubs are shut – up from a cash burn of £3m a month in Lockdown I. There are reports that a further 750,000 jobs in the UK will be lost by February. This comes on top of the projection by the World Travel and Tourism Council which expects 174m jobs to be lost in the sector globally.

The announcement of a workable vaccine this week has been the news many in the hospitality sector have been waiting for. Travel stocks soared on the back of the news, with EasyJet's share price rising over 25%, whilst IAG's stock increased 40%. We have always been optimistic that the wide availability of an effective vaccine would transform sentiment and get people travelling, holidaying and eating out as they used to. If businesses can keep going till spring – by which point the vaccine would be widely available - we are confident they will boom in the rest of 2021 given the pent-up demand. No easy task, and there will be significant challenges ahead, but the vaccine is already top of the Christmas gift list for 2020!