PwC Sees Steep Insolvency Increase in UK Tourism Sector

By Michael Foster, Big4.com Blogger

PwC sees a high number of insolvent businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the UK. The Big4 firm’s latest analysis of the sector said that corporate insolvencies in travel and tourisms rose to 37 per cent year-to-date by September 2012, up 10 per cent from last year’s figures.

Despite the high number, insolvencies fell in the third quarter of 2012, with 43 per cent less insolvencies for hotels and 40 per cent less for the travel and tourism sector as a whole.

Hotels did not see greater insolvencies, with 137 insolvent properties and chains for the year-to-date nearly matching last year’s figure of 136 for the same period.

Business Recovery and Hospitality Specialist David Chubb said that he expects that trend to continue into the last quarter thanks to a seasonal bump in demand for holiday travel. “Most of the businesses will be looking for an uplift in performance over the Christmas period and therefore I would expect a further drop in insolvencies in the next quarter,” he said.

PwC’s Travel and Tourism sector seeks to discover changing consumer trends in travel and tourism to help businesses in this space. The PwC Hospitality and Leisure practice researches changes in the industry, investigates trends in the tourism economy, and provides reports for the public and clients.