Around 40,000 hotel bookings to be lost with relocation of European Medicines Agency
The relocation of the European Medicines Agency will take 40,000 hotel bookings with it, says law firm Royds Withy King.
The European Union yesterday (20 November) announced that the European Medicines Agency will relocate from its home in London's Docklands to Amsterdam when the UK leaves the EU in 2019, taking with it around 1,000 high-value jobs.
The firm says the move will have a "devastating" impact on the London hotel market, leaving some 40,000 empty hotel rooms a year.
Claus Andersen, a partner in Royds Withy King's life sciences team, said: "The departure of the European Medicines Agency will leave a hole not only in our global life sciences sector, but also in the sizeable hotel market it supports. Each year, the Agency receives around 40,000 visitors and is responsible for a similar number of hotel bookings which will now go with it to Amsterdam."
David Israel, employment partner in Royds Withy King's hotel team, added: "To lose 40,000 hotel rooms effectively overnight will leave operators facing some difficult decisions."
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