Just as the falling pound has sparked hopes that foreign tourists will flock to Britain for cheaper holidays, the government’s tourism chief warned Thursday that poor service could put them off.
Christopher Rodrigues, the chairman of Visit Britain, told the Independent that 50,000 jobs in the sector could go because of the recession — and miserable staff and low standards would be responsible for some of the losses.
He said hotels and restaurants had been able to “get away” with sub-standard service, blighted by grumpy staff and unable to offer clients even fresh soap. But they will have to up their game as the economic downturn bites.
“We’ve had a period in which people could get away with not being of the highest quality,” said Rodrigues, who represents the tourist boards of England, Scotland and Wales.
“We’re now in an environment where you have to do quality. Poor value for money and poor service costs jobs and will cost more jobs in a recession.
“Threadbare towels, a previously owned bar of soap and a grumpy person who says, ‘We don’t do breakfast before 8:00 am and we don’t do it after 8.12 am’ — you don’t get a lot of happy customers’.”
Rodrigues estimated that tourism earnings in Britain would fall by four billion pounds during the recession, at a cost of between 30,000 and 50,000 of the 2.6 million jobs in the service industry.
AFP