Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on UK Hospitality

This report analyzes the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK's hospitality and tourism industries. It details the significant economic downturn, including revenue losses, job losses, and the effects of lockdowns and travel restrictions. The report highlights the uneven impact across different segments of the industry, such as hotels, restaurants, and clubs, and discusses the role of government interventions like the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Furthermore, it examines the drastic decline in international tourist arrivals and the challenges faced by businesses in adapting to the new operational environment. The study concludes that the pandemic has caused lasting changes, necessitating significant recovery efforts for the hospitality and tourism sectors in the UK. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students seeking academic support.

The impact of Covid in UK

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Impact of Covid -19 in UK on hospitality and tourism industry.................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality and tourism industry was one of the biggest sector which was very much affected by
the impact of Covid -19 pandemic. Due to lockdown and government restrictions the hospitality
and tourism industry have to suffer a lot in terms of revenue and profit generation (Baum, and
Hai, 2020). Restrictions on trading has badly impacted the hospitality business.in this report we
will study about the impact of Covid -19 pandemic in UK on hospitality and tourism industry.
MAIN BODY
Impact of Covid -19 in UK on hospitality and tourism industry
The hospitality and tourism industry basically refers to the food and accommodation
services which includes hotels, cafes, bars, restaurants and other accommodations. This sector
was highly impacted during the Covid-19 pandemic.in 2019 the economic worth was $59.3
billion which was three percent of the total economy of UK. The hospitality and tourism
industry have many workers like young workers, part time workers, foreign born workers and
many more. Due to the Covid -19 pandemic the restrictions on the trading in hospitality and
tourism industry has badly impacted the business of the industry. Lockdown and restrictions on
the opening of hotels and permitting time limits for the visit of the cafes and restaurants results
in the decrease of revenue generation by the industry.
Late night business like clubs and restaurants were badly hit during the Covid -19
pandemic in UK as everyone wants to enjoy in the clubs or pubs. Because of the pandemic
situation in the UK many individual have lost their job and retention of employee was not there
in the hospitality industry. Because of the lockdown and restrictions on the timing of joining the
office there was a lack of communication and due to which lack of synchronization was faced by
the employees of the hospitality and tourism industry (Keogh-Brown, and et.al, 2020). The
covid -19 pandemic situation was a great loss for the hospitality and tourism industry because of
losing the newly hired talented employees and this results in the negative factor of the
industry.one of the major issues faced by the hotel industry was mass cancellation of hotels and
bookings by the customers which impact the industry and results in the loss of revenue. Even
half of the hotel industry was left unemployed and the occupancy rate was also very low during
the pandemic time. People have cancelled their pre booked trips and it was affecting the
customers as well as the organization. Because of full lockdowns announced by the government
of UK it was impossible for the industry to run their business and still they have to give salary to
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their employees. All the restaurants allowed the service of taking the food out and no dine in was
available for the customers (Ntounis, and et.al, 2022). This was hitting the economy of the
country as well and resulting in loss of profit margin earned by the hospitality and tourism
industry. This period was ranged from 2020 to 2021 and after this the situation becomes little
easier but the industry have to do a lot of hard work for making the revenue and make many
guidelines for the individuals by providing safety at its best.
The overall hospitality and the tourism industry was hit hard by the impacts of the
coronavirus pandemic. These impacts were much uneven that the bars, clubs have been affected
negatively as the hospitality and the tourism industry was the sector affected the most by the
lock downs as well as by the government restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. As the
impacts of the pandemic was increasing, the hospitality and the tourism sector was adapted due
to the restrictions with the proportion of the temporary businesses closed. The turnover of the
businesses was seen during this time period. During this pandemic period, the international
tourists was fallen to the -97% in the year 2020 (Uchehara and et.al., 2020). This sector was
largely affected because the hospitality and the tourism sector was not able to adjust the
operations in the home working. In this sector, it was found that only 10% of the overall workers
were Woking from other as compared to the other sector.
Revenue which was earned by the tourism and the hospitality sector in the UK has seen
drastic fall of 73% in the 3rd quarter of year 2020 as compared to the previous years. These
sectors have seen the largest economic declines as compared to the other sectors during the
coronavirus pandemic. The peak of the economic downturn was seen in the April 2020, as
during this time economic output in the accommodation as well as of the food was found 90%
that is below the levels of the pre-pandemic. The businesses of the hospitality and the tourism
has seen the highest downturn as their profits were lowered. The hospitality sector is considered
as one of the largest users of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or the Furlough Scheme as
this scheme played the vital role in protection of the jobs in this sector. Between the January
2020 and in 2021 there was seen a 10% fall in the businesses of the hospitality sector in the UK
(Nicola and et.al., 2020).
The international passengers which were arrived fell from February 2020 to the 6.8
Million. The COVID 19 was much based for the tourism as well as the hospitality industry in
UK as due to this pandemic, the government has lifted many regulations as well as the
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restrictions. These restrictions have shown fell in the number of the passengers to the country
and because of this the hospitality and the tourism industry was drastically impacted. The
tourism industry became one of the fastest growing industry but it was found that due to the
pandemic, this has seen negative impacts on the overall sector. The holiday parks and the
campsites were generating the much revenue for the company and this also seen the fall in the
revenue for the company. In UK, the travel and the tourism sector was contributing over 6.7% of
the gross value added in the year 2018. And when the coronavirus arrived, the pandemic has
impacted this sector majorly with emergence of the restrictions and the regulations of the
government for the long time period. The monthly passenger arrivals of the UK fall from the
6,804.900 in February 2020 to the 112,300 in the April 2020 as this fall was around 98.3%
(Huang and et.al., 2020). The Greater London saw the weakest recovery of the hotel's occupancy
of rooms in the year 2020 as compared to the previous years results as this hotel has the highest
occupancy rate. The UK is the country which considers the hospitality and the tourism industry
is the heart of the GDP but after the pandemic arrived, the hospitality and the tourism sector has
contributed very less to the GDP of the country.
The coronavirus pandemic has very large impacts on the both the sectors that is the hospitality
and the tourism of the UK. This has created very vast changes in the number of the passengers
arrivals and the room occupancy (Du and Karoglou, 2020). Many numbers of the people has lost
their jobs in the hospitality and the tourism industry as this created the unemployment in the
country and it became very difficult for the people to earn their livelihood. The operations of the
businesses was impacted as in these both industries no work from can be allotted so these were
heavily impacted. The people of the country were not able to spend much money on the
necessities as they were not employed due to the restrictions of the government has made many
businesses to close. The majority of the people has loosed their jobs because of the lock downs
in the overall country so it is said that the hospitality and the tourism sector was affected heavily
in the UK (Rahimizhian and Irani, 2020).
The pre-levels of the COVID 19 was much better as they were showing the growth on
the fast pace but due to the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic caused the challenge for the
livelihood as well as the lives of the people. The spread of the global pandemic has caused UK
country to impose the complete lock-down in the country and this created the pressure on the
overall hospitality and the tourism industry. The government took many measures to control the
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health, public as well as the economy of the country as there interventions main aim was to have
the control on the spreading of the virus all over the country.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the emergence of the COVID 19 pandemic has
caused very drastic impacts on the hospitality as well as the tourism industry of the UK. The
pandemic has changes the overall operations of the businesses of both these sectors. The spread
of the coronavirus has created the need of imposing the strict regulations and the lock-down in
the whole country and this has leads to losing the jobs by many people of the country. This
report has discussed the impacts of the hospitality as well as the tourism industry due to the
Covid 19 pandemic as this has drastically impacted both these sectors.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baum, T. and Hai, N.T.T., 2020. Hospitality, tourism, human rights and the impact of COVID-
19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Du, C.C.J. and Karoglou, M., 2020. UK tourism and hospitality sectors through COVID-19: the
dissolved, the liquidised and the dormant.
Huang, A., and et.al., 2020. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 intervention policies on the
hospitality labor market. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 91,
p.102660.
Keogh-Brown, and et.al, 2020. The impact of Covid-19, associated behaviours and policies on
the UK economy: A computable general equilibrium model. SSM-population health, 12,
p.100651.
Nicola, M., and et.al., 2020. The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic
(COVID-19): A review. International journal of surgery, 78, pp.185-193.
Ntounis, N., and et.al, 2022. Tourism and Hospitality industry resilience during the Covid-19
pandemic: Evidence from England. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(1), pp.46-59.
Rahimizhian, S. and Irani, F., 2020. Contactless hospitality in a post-Covid-19 world.
International Hospitality Review.
Uchehara, I.,and et.al., 2020. Impacts and risk management of COVID-19 pandemic on real
estate supply chain. International journal of real estate studies, 14(S1), pp.41-53.
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