British Hospitality Association E-zine

Goodbye
This is my last article as the association’s chief executive – an occasion which is naturally tinged with some emotion. For me, the last decade has been hugely absorbing, very exciting, wholly satisfying and totally enjoyable – yet ten years is a fair length of time. There is such a thing as overstaying your welcome.

I leave at an opportune time when a new government is in place which we hope will take this wonderful £110bn tourism and hospitality industry far more seriously than it has been taken in all the 13 years of the last administration. That can only be good for the industry. The industry won’t get all it wants but I feel confident that our arguments will be listened with care and sympathy.

So while we must look forward, not backwards, we have to recognise that what we have done in the past shapes our future. With the unstinting help of our members, the hospitality industry has made enormous strides in the last ten years. We have survived great challenges, largely by our own efforts: the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, the attack on the twin towers in the same year, the London bombings, and, more recently, the economic recession. In the last ten years, over £30bn has been invested in the hotel industry and Britain’s restaurant industry is now admired throughout the world. We must continue this investment in our facilities and quality of service.

The association, too, has developed. It has created – or helped create - organisations and alliances that have moved the industry forward and influenced it for the good – the Best Practice Forum, the Tourism Alliances of England, Scotland and Wales, People 1st, the Hospitality Skills Academy.

We’ve hammered home tourism’s case in Whitehall, in Scotland and Wales and in Brussels, winning some of the issues – the bed tax proposal for example, and the PPL Tribunal success – while continuing to face challenges on others.

As a result of these positive efforts, the association is now widely recognised as the principal trade association for the hospitality and tourism industry, with an influence now far wider than many people thought possible ten years ago.

Of course, we are in difficult times but with the help of members – and of the industry generally - we’ve come a very long way in this decade. I believe that in the next ten years the BHA will go much further, positively advancing the industry’s interests to our members’ advantage – indeed, to the advantage of the whole industry.

I wish the association under my successor, Ufi Ibrahim the greatest good fortune. I am sure members will give her the level of support they have so generously given to me and that she, too, will find that leading the BHA is the best job in hospitality.

So thankyou, for the support I have recieved in my time as BHA Chief Executive. For those who wish to keep in touch my email address is: robert.cotton1@btopenworld.com or my mobile number remains the same on 07718368049.

Bob Cotton

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