£90 Million Boost For UK Tourism (and Pub Trade?)

More good news for the hospitality sector; HMG has committed a further £90 million to help promote the UK as a place to visit and do business in. Forecasts are that some 32.6 million people will visit these shores during 2014, spending some £21.5billion!

New markets for our visitors to come from include China, Malaysia, South Korea and Mexico, and new (relaxed) visa regulations are forecast to see a step change in visitor numbers from these countries.

Now being that pubs are in the center of hospitality in the UK and being that "to visit a British Pub" is often on the list of reasons to visit the UK, it seems to me there is a few quid to be made here by our over-worked, under-paid (apparently) licensees.

I have tried to work out on my calculator that if say 20% of the £21.5 billion is spent in pubs and that there are some 50000 pubs left, how much could each see in their tills? Unfortunately my calculator does not allow for such large numbers, all it tells me is that there is plenty to go around!

Which pubs will benefit the most? I'll bet it's those that market their businesses the best! 'Hospitality' is the Bedrock of the UK economy, so says a report from Visit Britain and their GREAT campaign; The Great British Pub is at the heart of it!!


Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of Inn-Dispensable Personal Licence Courses

'Pubs are Great' Campaign To Promote UK Tourism

A combined initiative to promote British Pubs, who would have thought it?

What is: a great product, one of the world’s greatest institutions and the third most popular reason given by tourists for visiting Britain?…THE BRITISH PUB!

And so the BBPA (British Pub and Beer Association) have teamed up with Visit Britain to launch a campaign to encourage people to visit pubs.

The marketing will be titled 'Pubs are Great' and HMG will be involved, as their Visit Britain campaign will give support to the initiative.

Is this what "Dave" meant when he recently said, "We are going to do more to help the British Pub"? Let's hope so. More of it say I!

Thought for the day: "It's never too late"

Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of Inn-Dispensable Personal Licence Courses