Hospitality industry on the up: Best restaurant sales since the Corona crisis

The hospitality industry has left the Corona low a bit behind. Hotels and restaurants were able to increase sales by 8.5 percent from April to May – double the figure for the previous year.

Thanks to increasing sales in May, hotels and restaurants can continue to catch up with the Corona low. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, revenue in the hospitality industry increased by 8.5 percent in real terms from April to May of the current year.

Compared to May 2021, when there were still far-reaching restrictions for hotels, guesthouses and restaurants due to the pandemic, real sales have more than doubled with an increase of 126.8 percent, according to the Wiesbaden authorities.

The backlog is getting smaller

However, despite the upward trend, the pre-crisis level has not yet been reached: In real terms, sales were almost 15 percent below the level in February 2020, the month before the outbreak of the corona pandemic in Germany. However, this gap is getting smaller and smaller.

In May, hotels and other accommodation establishments recorded a sales increase of a good eight percent compared to the previous month. Compared to the same month last year, when most federal states were banned from accommodation for private travelers due to the corona pandemic, sales more than tripled by 243 percent.

Industry recovery continues

In gastronomy, inflation-adjusted income increased by 8.6 percent compared to the previous month. Compared to May 2021, when outdoor catering was allowed to reopen in parts of Germany, sales increased by 88.3 percent. “Thus, the gastronomy achieved the highest real turnover since the beginning of the corona pandemic.” However, it was still 14.9 percent below the pre-crisis level of February 2020.

The German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) recently declared after a survey that the recovery was continuing. Nevertheless, the drop in sales in the first six months was still nominal – i.e. not adjusted for inflation – 13.4 percent below the revenues of 2019.