The UK hospitality and tourism industries had a tumultuous year in 2020 – and that’s putting it mildly. But new research from online travel platform, TripAdvisor, suggests that Brits are already planning to hit the road for more holidays and more eating out in 2021. And the COVID-19 vaccine is giving us all the encouragement we needed.
Planning ahead
With the economic effects of the global pandemic clearer than ever, COVID-19 has dominated the headlines over the last 12 months. But as we have navigated our way through various lockdowns, the lack of spending has hit the economy badly, with hospitality and tourism being most affected.
But better days are ahead. With the first round of the double-jab vaccine for the virus now in full rollout, this has given Brits more reason to look ahead and start planning for 2021. And both eating out and holidays, at home and abroad, are at the top of the list.
And according to TripAdvisor’s recent survey, almost half of us are planning to eat out more than we did last year and three quarters of us are already planning a staycation.
Growing confidence
A key takeaway (no pun intended) from the survey was that “consumers can’t wait to dine out again, but their taste for takeaway will still endure”. And the results speak for themselves as 22% are planning on ordering in more takeaways in 2021, while 49% of us plan to dine out more often than last year. And 64% suggested they want to ‘buy local’ more too.
When it comes to flights, 29% of travellers confirmed that, once they’d had the vaccine, they were much more likely to travel internationally. And while 86% of all respondents said they would travel more inside the UK after vaccination, 73% of people are already planning UK-based mini breaks while more have yet to book. It looks like there’ll be plenty of demand for businesses to take advantage of.
Of course, the majority of people are more comfortable and confident with both domestic and international travel once any restrictions are lifted. But the speedy vaccine rollout has proved to be the catalyst for this forward planning.
First steps to recovery
Vaccination for COVID-19 is a first step, albeit a big one, towards recovery in hospitality and tourism, which is crucial, especially to us here in the south west. But with appetite still high and continuing to rise, property in these sectors is still attracting attention.
Jon Clyne, Director of Charles Darrow commented: “Whilst as a society we must remain vigilant with the COVID vaccine rollout ongoing and the absolute priority is to protect the vulnerable, the hospitality property market remains robust and the consensus of doom and gloom on transactions is largely unfounded, with a lack of supply driving both sales and prices. Charles Darrow has just completed a transaction on a £1.2m public house in Cornwall which attracted multiple offers, this sale follows on from a strong performance across many of our hospitality sectors at the end of 2020.”