The FINANCIAL -- Hospitality businesses recorded a 19.3% increase in administrations in 2011, confirming that it was one of the industries hardest hit by the economic downturn.

According to Caterer and Hotelkeeper, hotels are primarily responsible for the increase, with the number of administration appointments increasing from 51 to 80, year-on-year.

Peter Cooper, partner at insolvency experts Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery, said that the company had predicted an increase in the number of hospitality insolvencies for the final quarter of 2011, based on uncertainty around the prospects for a full scale economic recovery, a decline in consumer confidence, a fall in spending power and restrictions in the availability of working capital.

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