Let’s have the World Cup every week - Ed’s letter

The hospitality sector is, at the time of writing, hopped up on England’s performance in the World Cup. Wider economic performance may be damned by the inhospitable hours involved in keeping pace with the tournament, but for once our sector is raking it in.

It all seems so simple. Build it - or in this case, open the doors - and they will come. All you need are some international football teams and you don’t even have to pay for them. Not directly, in any case. A few flags, some barrels of alcohol and a couple of boxes of crisps and the profits come rolling in. Even hotels at the very top of the chain scale have been hosting viewing parties. It makes you wonder what all the complaining and thoughts of doom have been about.

And so thoughts inevitably turn to how we could do this every week. With all of us tucked up in our personalised information silos, there are very few monoculture events left out there any more for all of us to enjoy and we’re probably a few years off the next royal wedding. So I’m afraid it’s back to hotels coming up with their own events.

And while that may sound facetious, it’s a growing trend. Tired of waiting for other people to think of fun things to do that hotels can then hitch themselves to, hotels are more and more inclined to turn themselves into the destination. Music festivals, food festivals, even business festivals (although I think those are called conferences), hotels - and investors - have realised that if they want to achieve the rates they dream of, it’s easier to create their own hot location than spending a premium buying into the waterfront in Cannes.

This realisation has come hand in hand with the consumer demands for experience and the appetite to keep guests on site when they’re conscious (and spending) rather than unconscious and using the hotel as a base to go and spend money elsewhere.

With cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam imposing strict limits on new hotels, operators are being crowded out of a growing number of destinations. Guests (and local authorities looking for ways to spread tourism more evenly) will welcome the newest event in town. But you’re going to need more crisps.