A study carried out by EY Parthenon and Booking . com calculated that the hotel industry will need to invest € 768bn ( roughly £ 645.89bn ) in procuring more efficient technologies and renewable energy sources to meet future climate demands . To many , this amount of money seems more than a little aspirational , particularly as one of the main concerns surrounding the figure is the economic damage imposed on the industry by the pandemic .
In the UK , for example , the Office for National Statistics ( ONS ) reported that around 1,650,000 hospitality employees were placed on furlough in April 2020 — representing 25 % of the overall national furlough figure . Economic recovery was slow during the initial onset of the pandemic , with industry turnover at just £ 1.2bn in May 2020 . In May 2021 , this rose to £ 6.9bn .
While the hospitality sector is slowly recovering in the UK , this may not apply to other countries , with COVID-19 provoking further changes and lockdowns across the globe . So , hotels are not only grappling with the financial fallout of travel restrictions from the past two years and attempting to recover economically , but they are now also expected to locate the funds necessary to reduce their negative climate impact .
Hotels need support to carry out sustainability action García believes that “ the main obstacles are an insufficient sense of urgency , knowledge gaps , poor data , and a lack of financial
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