A year after the disaster
One year on, and the hospitality industry seems to be delivering a collective sigh of relief that the events of 11 September 2001 are behind us and we are still in fairly good shape.
Despite the fact that hotels are achieving pretty decent room rates, and occupancy levels are holding up, I don't think many people would describe the market as buoyant. In fact, we are only now about to experience the real knock-on effect of last year's terrorist action.
When the news came, hotel groups put expansion on hold. Whitbread, for example, stopped building two hotels, which would have been opening about now.
Restaurant groups which managed to hold it together for the first months of the year are coming clean about the real effects of the downturn in leisure activity and overseas visitors. Fish! is one example of the fallout, especially prevalent where chains have a strong London presence.
Of course, the UK's isn't the only economy to suffer. I was in the Bahamas earlier this year and the taxi driver from the airport complained that he hadn't had one American fare in nearly a week.
With 12 months separating us from the attack on the twin towers, it is easier to pick out some lessons. At the time, there was a huge amount of emotion. Now we can look at things more dispassionately.
I'd say the most important lesson I have learnt is that, in the face of such an unprecedented disaster, you need to pull your horns in quickly. The temptation is to carry on spending - you have already made the commitment to your shareholders, and the work may even be in progress. At the same time, politicians are promoting the "business as usual" message, and to retrench seems to be letting the side down.
However, tight control on capital is crucial, and it makes sense to reassess development and expansion plans at the very earliest opportunity. Better to lose a few thousand by pulling out of a deal than to risk millions on something that no longer fits the bill.
We can con ourselves into thinking that life will return to normal after the first shockwave is past but, with a disaster on this scale, the ramifications are so great that change is inevitable.
Although the first anniversary of 11 September will soon be here, I don't think we have seen the full extent of the impact on the UK economy in general, and on the hospitality industry in particular.
STEPHEN EVANS is chief executive of Food That Delights, chairman of First! Venues, a member of the national committee of the Restaurant Association, and chairman of its education and training sub-committee
