Once a month, Steve Lowy – Founder and Chairman of Umi – kindly shares his thoughts about the current state of the hospitality industry.
“The tourism sector has really bounced back in the UK this summer. Despite the issues surrounding the airports in the UK and Europe as well as delays in visa processing, both urban, rural, and coastal destinations have experienced huge volumes of domestic and international visitors. We know this has been a challenge operationally with staffing shortages caused by the Brexit aftermath, time off for Covid, and the wish for team members that have been dying for a well-deserved break themselves. One has to hope that the government (whoever that will be in the next few weeks!) will listen to the industry and support us to relax visa regulations somewhat to bolster the hospitality industry workforce.
Further afield, there have been some interesting movements in the Serviced Apartment sector, where Ascott International purchased Oaktree over in Singapore. Although the two brands are predominantly Asian focused, they do have an increasing footprint in Europe, and with a portfolio of more than 150,000 units across nearly 900 properties in more than 200 cities in 39 countries following the acquisition, it will be interesting to see how this impacts their European growth.
Finally, and closer to home, there has been an interesting shift by the UK Government as to how DMOs will be operated going forwards. In short, the process will be streamlined, to ensure great transparency across DMOs but also to try and give visitors a better experience when trying to explore the whole of the UK. More can be seen here on the UK Government website.”