After two years of uncertainty and a stop-start return to normality, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is now increasingly visible to the hospitality sector.

The Omicron wave and its knock-on impact on consumer confidence has largely subsided in Europe, travel companies are reporting a bounce-back in bookings, while airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair have announced plans to hire thousands of additional pilots and cabin crew. Crucially, the UK government’s move to lift testing and travel restrictions has pushed capacity back to near pre-pandemic levels. The scale of pent-up demand for leisure travel when remaining restrictions are removed can-not be underestimated.

To give an inkling of this, the removal of UK pre- and post-flight testing requirements alone, led to a 71 percent surge in low-cost flight bookings in the first week of January this year. Indeed, the success of the vaccination programme meant that the European hospitality industry increased Rev