The hotel and catering industry of Great Britain during the 1980s: sub-regional employment change, specialization and dominance

Abstract

This chapter describes the principal changes in hotel and catering employment at the sub-regional, or country scale, revealing a very uneven spatial pattern. Some of the major demand-side factors are identified as the key determinants of the changing geography of hotel and catering employment. It is a diverse industry and the effect of demand-side changes has resulted in differing levels of employment change in the various activity groups which form the sub-sectors of this industry. The varying growth rates in the different activity groups are examined, arguing that the faster rate of growth in catering compared to accommodation services has certain important spatial outcomes. This is reflected in the changing levels of sub-regional specialization and the extent to which certain countries are dominated by one particular industry sub-sector. The changing nature of spatial specialization in employment in the hotel and catering sector in the 1980s is also examined. The hotel and catering industry is a diverse mix of catering and accommodation services. Within the sub-regions of the UK during the 1980s, these services responded to a complex set of demand stimuli to produced varied and changing mosaic of regional dominance and collectively an uneven pattern of employment change and specialization. The individual regions of the UK have had different experiences of the changing character of the hotel and catering industry during the 1980s.