Bristol's hospitality businesses pledge to create 1,000 work opportunities

The jobs pledge, a mixture of full-time roles, apprenticeships and work placements was made at the event at the Mercure hotel yesterday where members of the industry came together to discuss ways to create job opportunities for 16-24-year-olds. 

Opening the event, Heiko Figge, who oversees the MREF Hotels portfolio, said Bristol and the South West had one of the largest hotel and restaurant sectors in the UK 'in terms of both employees and contribution to the local economy' so it was an important area for job creation.

"The city’s visitor economy continues to grow steadily, with a visitor spend in excess of £1billion annually, while the city is the fourth most visited in England. For young people in Bristol starting out in their career, hospitality is an obvious choice.  With one of the largest hotel and restaurant sectors in the UK there is a lot of opportunity in the city," he said. 

Jacqui Allum, director of The Big Hospitality Conversation added: “The Bristol Big Hospitality Conversation generated over 1,000 work placements, apprenticeships and job opportunity across the city which is an excellent result. Hospitality is a growing industry which is consistently resilient to economic fluctuations and Bristol is ideally placed for attracting domestic and overseas tourists.  We’re delighted with the response and pledges made by prosperous local hospitality and tourism businesses who are seeking to attract young people.”  

Job creation​

Led by the British Hospitality Association in partnership with Springboard, Barclays, Believe in Young People, National Apprenticeship Service and the DWP, the Big Hospitality Conversation is designed to generate more job opportunities for young people in the industry. So far 36,000 opportunities have been created with the aim of creating up to 60,000 jobs for young people by 2016. 

BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim said: “Conversations can change a life.  At each and every Big Hospitality Conversation, each person in the room has the potential to change their life or someone else’s life for the better, and each and every person attending a Big Conversation event is an ambassador for the hospitality industry. The BHA wants politicians to understand how important the hospitality industry is and to help Government understand that this industry starts conversations which can transform people’s lives.”

The Bristol event, the 22nd to date, was the first of many to be held over the year with Tottenham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Swansea, Belfast and Cardiff among the locations planned.