Inside Track by Peter Martin
London is already back at work. A return to ‘normality’ may take a little longer, but the capital is demonstrating the strength and resilience that has always marked it out as one of the world’s great cities and communities.
The hospitality industry will have embraced the joy and optimism of Wednesday’s Olympic bid victory as much as any business sector. It will be one of the main beneficiaries of the tourism bonanza the Games promise.
It will also have felt the shock and outrage of Thursday’s bombs as keenly as any sector. Hospitality is no stranger to terrorism, whether domestic or international. The memories of pub and hotel bombings are still clear. London, as much as anywhere outside the USA, shared the economic aftershock of 9/11 as Americans stayed out of the skies. The Bali nightclub blast seemed nearer to home than the geographic distance might have suggested.
But for hospitality, like London now, or Madrid last year, it is a case of "getting on with business".
Last week, despite the handful of, largely unsubstantiated, headlines of profiteering hotels, the capital’s hoteliers came up with the goods. The Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road turned into a make-shift centre for the "walking wounded" from the nearby Tube station, while other Hiltons offered rooms on Thursday at its staff rate of £65 a night. InterContinental, among others, also joined Hilton in waiving cancellation fees and no-show charges.
It is too early to tell the long-term effect on London tourism, which accounts for 10% of the capital’s GDP, but there is belief, and certainly a hope, that it may only be short-term. The Madrid bombings in March last year had only a limited impact, which hotel bookings and tourist arrivals growing steadily in the months since.
While central London was largely empty on Thursday and Friday, outer London and suburban pubs, bars and restaurants were generally busy, by most accounts, welcoming those getting out of the centre or staying away.
The atrocities did seem to bring the best out of London’s diverse, cosmopolitan population. Sadness and outrage were mixed with resolve that "the bastards won’t beat us" and a spirit of togetherness and co-operation.
This also seems to be reflected in Saturday night’s mass evacuation of Birmingham city centre, also no stranger to terror attacks, when pubs, bars, restaurants, nightclubs and hotels were calmly, peacefully and orderly emptied of up to 20,000 people on a night-out. The police warmly praised the public, businesses and licensees for their co-operation and understanding after the security alert.
What a contrast to the usual view of a Saturday night out in Britain? It may sound trite, but perhaps the enormity of a terrorist bombing can put into better perspective some of our differences over licensing, rowdiness and alcohol to find a better balance that understands and protects the right to both a peaceful life and the freedom to relax and have a good time out?
And what of the Olympic bid victory? The 2012 Games still promise much for London and Britain, and perhaps now there should be even greater determination to ensure their success for the country and the rest of the world.
That should be especially true for the hospitality industry. Hotels, pubs, restaurants and the wider leisure sector have the opportunity to demonstrate they can provide the entertainment, welcome and hospitality they can be proud of.
It has to be business as usual.
