Hospitality industry in the United Kingdom
The hospitality industry in the United Kingdom is largely represented by the country's hotels, pubs, restaurants and leisure companies, and produces around 4% of UK GDP. Output. There are over 207,000 eating venues in England, and around 25% of these are fast-food outlets. According to the British Beer and Pub Association, around 8.5 billion pints of beer were sold, with 7.4 billion 175ml glasses of wine, and 1.2 billion pints of cider in the UK in 2018. Beer has 54 pence of duty per pint. There are around 2530 breweries in the  UK. In a September 2015 report for the British Hospitality Association (BHA), the UK industry paid around £41bn in tax; around half of this is VAT. The tax paid in 2014 was around £7bn higher than that paid in 2010. Overseas visitor spending in the UK (not including international students) is reckoned to be around £22bn. The UK tourist industry is the 8th largest tourism destination in the world. VisitBritain is responsible for tourists to the UK. In 2014 there were around 30m overseas visitors to the UK. It is not one of the larger industries , by GDP, in the UK. Training. The former Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board became the Hospitality Training Foundation, which ultimately became People 1st on 19 May 2004; it is the industry's sector skills council. In 2002 around eighty National Training Organisations (NTOs) became around twenty SSCs. The Council for Hospitality Management Education conversely has an international outlook. Companies. The Stonegate Pub Company (based close to the M1 in Luton) is the largest pub group in the UK, after it bought Ei Group in March 2020 for £3 billion. Before it sold Costa Coffee in January 2019, Whitbread , in Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire, was the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, owning Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre and Beefeater. Premier Inn was developed and expanded in the 2000s largely during the leadership of Alan C. Parker, the chief executive of Whitbread. Compass Group, in Chertsey in Surrey, is the largest contract foodservice company in the world. Workforce. In 2015 the UK hospitality industry employed around 2.9m people – around 9% of the UK workforce. By employment, it is the UK's fourth-largest industry. The most jobs in the industry are found in London (around 500,000) and South  East England (around 400,000); 18% of workers in the UK industry are in London. There are around 1.5m restaurant workers, and around 0.5m work in hotels. Contingent of EU employees. Around 25% of the hospitality workforce comes from the EU, making up around 25% of chefs and around 75% of waiting staff. In 2019, 1 in 50 applicants to Pret a Manger was British.