Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
hospitality services;
pubs, bars and night clubs;
gambling;
contract catering;
membership clubs;
hostels;
holiday parks;
self-catering;
visitor attractions;
tourist services;
travel services;
events;
In 2012 there were 181,500 individual business sites operating across the hospitality
industry. As measured by the number of employees, the hospitality sector is predominately
made up of small businesses1.
Table 1 The number of businesses by sector
Sector
Number of businesses
Restaurants
75,600
42%
52,000
29%
Food
23,600
11%
management
Hotels
12,400
7%
Gambling
11,600
6%
Self-catering
3,800
2%
3,500
2%
Tourists services
1,400
1%
500
<1%
181,500
100%
and
accommodations,
Visitor Attractions
Total
service
holidays
In recent years, the sector has performed considerably better than the economy as a
whole in spite of the recession, increasing its contribution by 13 percent between 2010 and
2011, compared to the overall economy.
Workforce
The hospitality and tourism sector continues to be a major UK employer and is
playing a critical role in helping people into jobs.
According to the State of The Nation Report 2013, the latest figures from 2011 show
that the workforce currently stands at 2,076,000; an increase of 0.7 percent on the previous
year. This increase is higher than the average across the economy as a whole (0.5 percent)
and demonstrates the resilience of the sector in the face of the economic downturn.2
The sector has always employed a high proportion of part-time workers, enabling
businesses to respond to fluctuations in customer demand. Nearly half of the hospitality and
tourism workforce is employed on a part-time basis (48 percent).
The sectors workforce has traditionally been much younger than across the economy
as a whole, with more than 40 percent of employees currently under 30. In the sector most
workers are women, most workers are aged 35 to 55 with over a third of staff being under 25.
The sectors managers are also comparatively young (see table 16), underlining the
opportunities for career progression in the sector.
As the hospitality industry continues to grow and other sectors contract, its relative
importance to the UK economy is increasing. The low barriers to entry mean that people can
start working in the sector with little experience and develop into higher skilled and
management positions. This provides the Government with an opportunity to work with
sector employers to help get more people into work and to support its social mobility
agenda.3
Turnover
In 2010 the hospitalitys industry turnover in the UK was of 90 billion and is worth
46 billion to the UK economy in wage and profits, and directly contributes 2.44 million
jobs, and over 1.2 million jobs through multiplier effects (the sum of indirect and induced
employment).4 Nearly half million people are employed in restaurants, 400.000 work in the
service sector of the industry.
With 2.44 million direct jobs representing just below 8% of total employment these
makes the hospitality economy the UKs 5th biggest industry in terms of employment.
Conclusion
As it can be seen, the scale and diversity of hospitality industry are large and complex
and its importance for the UK economy is growing by the year. The multitude of jobs it
creates and the diversity of these business makes it attractive to the available workforce and
creates opportunities for everyone interested in the sector.