'Fawlty' hotels will cost jobs, warns tourism chief

GRUMPY hoteliers and overpriced restaurants face going to the wall in the recession, a government tourism chief warned today.

Up to 50,000 jobs could be lost in the industry over the next year.

Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of Visit Britain, added that businesses likely to fail were those overcharging or not offering the best customer service.

He said: "We're now in an environment where you have to do quality. Poor value for money and poor service costs jobs and will cost more jobs in a recession."

He told The Independent: "Threadbare towels, a previously owned bar of soap and a grumpy person who says, 'We don't do breakfast before 8am and we don't do it after 8.12am' - you don't get a lot of happy customers." He estimated tourism earnings in Britain would fall by £4billion during the recession, costing between 30,000 and 50,000 of 2.6 million jobs in the service industry.

Despite the poor outlook for hotels providing the level of service found in TV's Fawlty Towers, Britain could become a more sought-after holiday destination as the plummeting pound has created better value for overseas visitors.

Gordon Brown and Culture Secretary Andy Burnham will today meet tourism chiefs in Liverpool. The Prime Minister was expected to highlight a £6.5million Visit Britain campaign overseas. Recent falls in sterling have made visiting the UK from the eurozone about a fifth cheaper, a quarter less expensive for Americans and up to 40 per cent cheaper for the Japanese.

The campaign's slogan is "There's never been a better time to explore Britain". About 32 million people visit Britain each year.