About the market:

Eating out is an increasingly popular activity amongst consumers in the UK, in part driven by a growing proportion of disposable income that is being spent on leisure, but also due to the proliferation of concepts and brands in the restaurant sector that is generating more interest in dining out. This has had a profound impact on the hotel sector; food and beverage provision is now seen as a means not only to generate additional revenue but also a way of attracting consumers to stay in their hotel.

Despite headway made in the top-end of the hotel catering sector, strong growth in the budget sector where food and beverage provision is limited virtually or non-existent, has had a negating effect on the year-on-year growth in the hotel catering sector. Indeed, when inflation is taken into account, the hotel catering sector has in fact diminished in value by 6% since 2000. In 2005 it is estimated that £4.1 billion will be spent on dining in hotels. The proportion of overall hotel revenue generated by food and beverage activity has risen over the last five years from 35.8% in 2000 to a forecast 38.9% in 2005.

About Mintel’s research:

Pooling together the latest market trend data, exclusive consumer research and most authoritative market analysis, Mintel's new report offers you all the insight and inspiration you need for designing clever, creative and profitable business strategy. Use Mintel's research to fully understand the market’s dynamics, build customer-focused marketing plans and to:

Track market sizes, driving forces and segmentation (reasons for hotel visits)

Identify the typical hotel restaurant user and the frequency with which they eat out

Identify changing attitudes towards hotel food

Discover the reasons that drive consumers to eat out

Pin-point the occasions when hotel guests and visitors eat in formal or informal hotel restaurants

Establish new hotel catering target groups and find out how to best reach key audiences with the most effective marketing communications

Measure market forecasts and build realistic business models.

Intriguing findings include:

In 2004, inbound tourist arrivals finally exceeded pre-September 11th figures, totalling 27.7 million

While 33% of consumers who have stayed in a hotel and eaten there believe hotel restaurants to be overpriced, 30% of consumers ‘love treating’ themselves to a full English breakfast

Consumers in Scotland have a considerably greater propensity to eat out in hotels than consumers living in other regions in the UK.