Partner Article

Optimism returning to the leisure industry

Last year was a mixed bag for the leisure industry with the excitement of the Queen’s Jubilee and the London Olympics balanced by a spate of wet weather driving wouldbe spenders back inside.

Andrew Taylor, Head of Leisure for Commercial Banking at NatWest takes a look at the key issues and outlook across the leisure sector.

There is no denying that conditions have been – and still are – challenging for businesses, but there are some positive signs!

In an independent survey of our leisure customers, 48% said they believed their business would grow in the next year, with 73% saying they were either optimistic or very optimistic about 2013.

It’s great to see such a sense of optimism returning to the leisure market with businesses reporting higher than expected levels of optimism.

However, it is key that businesses in the sector are continuing to reinvest to ensure they remain competitive. This was one of the biggest issues recorded in our survey – with one in four UK leisure businesses feeling they are losing out to competitors due to lack of investment.

The research, which surveyed SME’s across the leisure industry, showed 30% of respondents don’t feel they invested sufficiently in 2012 to remain competitive, while 55% feel investment in refurbishment or new equipment would make a positive impact on their business.

It is vital for leisure businesses to invest in the quality of offering whether that is a hotel or a restaurant or any of the many types to leisure businesses. This is probably true more so for leisure than other industries as people do not want to spend their hard earned cash in tired offerings.

To help support leisure businesses, we have launched a £150million fund to encourage investment in the industry.

The Leisure Fund, supported by national tourist board, Visit England, comes with the option of two 6-month capital repayment holidays – allowing breathing space for investment and contingency planning.

Leisure is vital for the UK economy, generating around £97bn of GDP and nearly 2 million jobs and could play a massive role in the economic recovery of Britain.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by NatWest and RBS .