Tourism recovery hit by shortage of staff

BRITAIN’S post-pandemic tourism boom is under threat from a shortage of staff, the owner of Premier Inn has said.

Whitbread, a FTSE 100 company, said it expected to spend an extra £30m on wage rises as it battles to attract staff in a tight labour market. Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest there are a record 170,000 vacancies across the hospitality sector, double the level of before the pandemic.

Industry chiefs have argued that a lack of staff is making it more difficult for restaurants and hotels to trade.

Some hospitality businesses have begun offering £1,000 sign-on bonuses, while others have lifted salaries for chefs by almost a third. One London restaurant was recently offering £91,000 a year for a chef.

Whitbread said it would invest in refurbishing sites and IT upgrades, as well as “targeted pay increases”.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of Uk hospitality, said the “high vacancy rates are impeding our ability to trade”.

She added: “This is particularly concerning as we enter the summer, a key trading period for much of the sector.”

Whitbread said it was already experiencing a surge in demand, with like-forlike sales for the 13 weeks to the end of May up more than 200pc on last year and up 21pc on where they were in 2019.

Shares in Whitbread, which also owns Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, were up 6pc yesterday after it reported the uptick in demand.

However, it is still trading around a third lower than before the pandemic.