Has tourism and hospitality really regained the freedom it so desperately craves?

At the end of April, when the catering industry started to re-establish itself, as a first step, by re-opening its terraces, we were all cautiously watching what would happen, whether the catering industry was ready to serve us, guests again, free from the indulgence of the courier companies and the somewhat illusion-destroying, alienating process of food being shoved through the window in boxes.

Government communication was clear that the number of vaccinated would determine government action, especially when it came to easing restrictions, but as the numbers rapidly approached the opening criteria (5 million vaccinated), more and more desperate advertisements were being read, with well-known and less well-known restaurants and hotels starting to recruit staff: dishwashers, kitchen helpers, but chefs, pastry cooks, even chefs, restaurant managers and hotel managers in some places were only being sought at the last minute. This was not a good sign for those who know how good and professional catering works. On one of the best-known job search portals, the number of vacancies in the hospitality sector has suddenly quadrupled.

Nothing works in hospitality and tourism without improvisation, of course, but a cohesive team can be more convincing, more efficient and more effective than a business trying to recapture and reclaim its market with a casual workforce of newcomers and outsiders.

As well as bringing together scattered teams, restaurateurs have also faced challenges such as keeping machinery and equipment up and running, liaising with suppliers repeatedly, sorting out any backlogs and getting the stocking and ordering of fresh goods right in a much more unknown equation. It also had to be acknowledged that some old partners were no longer answering the phone and new alternatives were few and far between.

It was a bumpy start, or re-start, when the jigsaw was still very much out of place. It was painful, even knowing this, to find that the terrace of one of my favourite, iconic restaurants in the countryside had a muddy, beginner's feel, with a quality of food and service that I would hate to knock down someone who had once done so much to develop the gastronomy of the area. (Let me conclude: incompetent, unprepared, unkempt waiters, slow kitchen, the soup was served cold, which you can only eat hot, the grated mozzarella was still frozen in the middle of the calzone, but the pizza dough was already burnt...). In Budapest, at Liszt Ferenc Square, the situation was not much better a day later, the lack of motivation on the part of the staff was also noticeable, the heaters on the terrace did not work, the waiters did not want to turn them on, and then we could hear in the background that at the end of the day they did not want to change the gas bottle for the last guests - although this information was not meant for us.

With this in mind, we have put the spot-test evaluations to rest for the first few days and will publish what we find from the first week of May, including the evaluation criteria.

You can listen in more detail to our reflections on what has happened in the last weeks and months in the audio monthly edition of the szalloda.blog on youtube.

Click on the image to listen to our topics - 40 minutes on:

0:00:00 Domestic hotels after Pentecost

0:02:40 The labour market situation in tourism now

0:04:38 The state of the ID card at home, in tourism and hospitality

0:09:04 MTÜ: National Tourism Development Strategy

0:17:49 The fate of the airport in Maldives

0:25:43 The affairs of Budapest Airport + The "wonders" of Croatian airports

0:36:16 The fate of Belavia after the Ryanair case

0:38:09 The plight of Budapest's tourism

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About the author:

Tamás Pakuts has been actively involved in aviation and tourism for almost 35 years, and in the hotel and catering industry for nearly 20 years.

As a manager and consultant, he has had an insight into the operations of several airlines, as well as hotels, hotel chains and cruise lines, successfully taking part in their operational management, crisis management and development.

He and his colleagues are now present in many countries around the world as experts, consultants and trainers in the hotel and air transport industries, and are working with colleagues to develop a number of new projects of international note.