Our editor knows Dunblane well and has enjoyed visits to the lovely Cromlix House hotel; it was sad to hear of its closure last year, so it is very good news that Dunblane’s most famous export, tennis star Andy Murray, has bought Cromlix House for £1.8 million and plans to re-open it next year as a five-star, 15 room destination hotel. This will create 40 new jobs in Murray’s home town.
Watch this space for more on this story and Andy Murray’s plans as a hospitality industry entrepreneur…
In our latest (Dec12/Jan13) issue, just out, Britain’s most successful hospitality entrepreneur exclusively tells Hospitality Today readers about the key ingredients for success in the hospitality business - and he has made £120 million (so far).
Open our latest issue directly at HospitalityToday.net or from our website at HospitalityToday.com
In HT’s current issue (#9), we have exclusive interviews with Angela Brav (European CEO of IHG, the world’s largest hospitality business), Thomas Dubaere (MD of Accor UK & Ireland), and Simon Vincent (European President of Hilton Worldwide) - as well as coverage in video, words and pictures of the first-ever Hospitality & Tourism Summit last month.
To open and read the issue now, click here.
In our April/May issue, just launched, we are raising some serious questions about the safety and compliance of the thousands of spare bedrooms being sold to paying guests as B&B accommodation on “accommodation marketplace” websites.
There are ten times as many listings on just one website (Airbnb) as the total number of established B&Bs in London.
Read our Leader on page 4 of the new issue, which you can open and read from HospitalityToday.com.
Yesterday when Evan Davies interviewed our editor on the ‘Today’ programme, he seemed sceptical about the idea that the hospitality industry turns over £90 billion.
Yes, our industry is the fifth biggest employer in the UK, accounting for 2.44 million jobs (one in every 13), turning over £90 billion and directly contributing £46 billion in ‘Gross Value Added’ to the UK economy. (Thanks to BHA for these figures.)
It also generates an additional 1.2 million jobs through “multiplier” effects - for example in food and drink production, agriculture and business services selling to the hospitality sector.
As David Cameron has said, “the rewards for growth in hospitality are immense. For every half a percent increase in our share of world tourism. we can add £2.7 billion to our economy and 50,000 jobs”.
Yet how much do we hear in the media, when they talk about “growth and jobs”, about hospitality, our 5th biggest employer? Certainly much less than about construction (7th), transport and communications (8th), and public administration and defence (9th).
What about financial services? We’re hearing about them daily. Tenth.
Hospitality Today will keep flying the flag for our industry, and campaigning for a VAT reduction (which we raised over a year ago), for red tape to be cut, for ‘Double Summer Time’, reform of VISA and APD regulations, and many other issues that currently hold back hospitality from filling its full potential to help the economy grow, bring in ‘export’ earnings and generate jobs.
It is 1.2.12 today, and our first birthday. Hospitality Today starts its second year today with the launch of Issue #7, our Feb/Mar issue.
Yesterday, VisitBritain admitted that the Olympics will NOT boost visitor numbers next year. The best it hopes for is flatlining: “maintaining current visitor levels would be a good outcome” says Chief Executive Sandie Dawe.
This of course bears out predictions made in Hospitality Today magazine, including the current issue (click here to open & read) in which the figures were analysed.
However the much-vaunted “tourism legacy” is still being resolutely clung to, though now the legacy of the £10 billion+ spend will be “positive PR for Britain”.
So that’s all right, then.
2011 was a year of economic extremes, but also weather extremes - even in the Champagne region. Dominique Demarville, Chef de Caves of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, tells HT about the harvest:
‘’It’s been a very challenging year, yet exciting too. The yield is good and nature has provided us with healthy grapes, especially the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Pinot Meunier in some areas was damaged by botrytis but the permitted yield enabled us to select the healthy grapes. The balance looks great, reminiscent of the 2004, 2000, 1998 and 1982. The quality of this harvest will enable us to produce top quality non vintage and increase our reserve wines collection. For the Vintage or La Grande Dame, we will wait until March or April 2012, after the creation of the Yellow Label blend.”
Dominique explains how Yellow Label is made on HospitalityToday.TV
We have been sold the idea of tourism being a big gainer from the Olympics - but analysis of past host city experiences - and actual booking data for 2012 - show otherwise. We examine what the games will mean for tourism in Hospitality Today’s Dec/Jan issue - click here to read now.
