Hospitality buoyed by busy Christmas but profits fear remains

Northern Ireland’s hospitality sector enjoyed its busiest Christmas since 2019 but Hospitality Ulster has sounded a warning over reduced profits as the industry enters its traditionally quietest months.

“People went, darn it – I’m going out. I haven’t been out in three years,” HU chief Colin Neill said.

“I’m going to go out and have Christmas and I’ll worry about recession and cost of living after Christmas.

“It will now take a few weeks to see what profit came out of that and face now the downturn that we expect.”

While the tills rang throughout the festive period bars, restaurants and hotels have been unable to pass on huge rises in the price of food and energy to their customers.

“It will now take a few weeks to see what profit came out of that and face now the downturn that we expect,” said Colin Neill.

“That now is our worry about how we keep the lights on

“The big worry obviously is profitability because we can’t pass on the costs we are getting hammered with. But it [Christmas] was positive.”

Northern Ireland Hotels Federation  chief Janice Gault, below, also confirmed members reported “a very strong performance” in the run up to Christmas.

“I think a lot of people made the decision to meet up – maybe not in the way they had traditional done so – but they did make the decision to meet up and see friend,” she added.

“I think it’s quite difficult to compare this Christmas to other Christmases, [it is] very different from the climate of 2018 and 2019.

“Different cost base, different stresses – but I think overall people had made the decision that Christmas was going to be something.

“They were going to put worries aside and go out and meet up with friends.”

However, she too expressed concern about energy and staff costs in the coming months.

“The next three months is gong to be an interesting time,” she said.