The UK hospitality industry is proving to be quite resilient during the recession.

The UK hospitality industry is proving to be quite resilient during the recession, especially in the budget sector, according to the 2009 British Hospitality Association (BHA) annual report released this week.

Around 11,000 rooms opened in 2009 and a further 40,000 are planned for the period 2010-2015.

Sponsored by American Express, the report British Hospitality: Trends and Developments, 2009, showed that the industry is continuing to expand despite the contracted times – since 2003, over 85,000 rooms have been added to UK hotel stock, just over half of these (55%) in the budget sector. This is the biggest hotel construction period in the industry’s history.

At the same time, the publication also points out that the hospitality industry has survived the recession with far fewer casualties than might have been expected in either the hotel or the catering sector.

Bob Cotton, Chief Executive of BHA, said; “Both hotel and restaurant insolvencies are running at a higher level than in previous years but quick action by operators to cut costs and to boost occupancy and footfall by providing special offers has enabled the vast majority of operators to weather the storm, even if at reduced levels of profitability.

“Almost every establishment that has gone into insolvency has re-opened under new ownership.”

Kathryn Pretzel-Shiels, Head of the UK’s Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Industries for American Express, Merchant Services, commented: “We think there is another silver lining for the UK hospitality industry as we see consumers are continuing to travel but just choosing to do so closer to home. As the BHA’s report shows, in the first half of 2009, trips abroad by UK residents declined by 15 per cent but 1.2m more holidays were taken in the UK compared with the same period of 2008.”

A noticeable feature is the continued growth of franchised hotel brands – mainly US based – including such names as Days Inn, Ramada, Ramada Encore, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Park Inn. In fact, the budget hotel sector opened nearly 6,000 rooms in 2009; the total figure now standing at 105,000 in comparison to 50,000 budget rooms in 2001.

The recession has had its effect however. Over 30 hotel projects have been put on hold or abandoned because developers have either gone into administration or have faced planning problems.

The BHA is the national trade association of the hotel, catering and leisure industry, representing more than 40,000 establishments with over 340,000 rooms and employing over 500,000 people.