Volcano shakes hospitality industry

Eyjafjallajökull is not just causing a headache for newsreaders and airlines. Five days of volcano-induced airport paralysis in the UK is having a knock-on effect for hotels and restaurants.

Many hotels are finding themselves inundated with last minute bookings followed by cancellations as flights are grounded for another day. Sofitel at London’s Terminal 5 reported 300 cancellations on Saturday alone.

Restaurant Group, which operates more than 50 outlets such as Frankie & Bennie’s and Garfunkel’s in the UK’s biggest airports, has seen its shareprice fall by 10 pence since the volcano grounded flights.

It’s not just the UK, or even Europe, which is feeling the pinch. The New York Daily News reported yesterday that the city stands to lose $250 million in tourist related revenue as European visitors are kept away.

Of course, there are likely to be beneficiaries too as tourists and business travellers stranded in the UK make the most of enforced leisure time by treating themselves to a long lunch.

Those restaurants following the trend for locally sourced food will also be feeling smug as their competitors run out of exotic air-freighted goods. Kenya alone exports around 1,000 tons of produce to Europe every day, while fresh fish supplies usually flown in from Norway and Iceland have been similarly disrupted.

As planes tentatively begin to take to the skies again, an industry which can be unpredictable enough at the best of times will be keeping its fingers crossed that normal service will soon be resumed.

Gabriel Savage, 20.04.10