British Hospitality Association
 |
|
| Abbreviation | BHA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1907 (Incorporated 1910) |
| Type | Trade association |
| Purpose | Hospitality/tourism |
| Headquarters | London, England |
|
Region
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United Kingdom |
|
Membership
|
40,000 |
|
President, BHA
|
Alan Parker CBE |
|
Chairman, BHA
|
Nick Varney |
|
Chief Executive, BHA/RA
|
Ufi Ibrahim |
|
President, RA
|
Robert Walton MBE |
| Website | www |
The British Hospitality Association (BHA), incorporating The Restaurant Association (RA), is a non-government representative body for hotels, clubs, restaurants, leisure outlets and other hospitality-related organisations nationwide headquartered in London, UK. The association promotes the interests of the hospitality industry to the Government Ministers, MPs, MSPs, Welsh Assembly Members, MEPs, the EU Commission, the City and the Media. The association operates by membership-based system.
BHA traces its origins back to 1885 when James Allen, of the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds, tried to establish the first association for supporting and representing the hotel industry in England. In 1891/2, the Caterer magazine took the similar attempt. However, those tries remained unsuccessful due to lack of support and interest.
In 1906, one of the main promises of the Liberal Party at the elections was to reduce drunkenness primarily by abolishing one-third of the liquor licenses in the UK. Moreover, it was proposed that the profits lost by the one-third of the licensees whose businesses were closed down would be recovered as a compensation levy from the remained two-thirds who survived. When the Liberal Party won the election with majority of 300 seats in the House of Commons, the industry faced a major disaster.
Frank Bourne-Newton, the editor, publisher and proprietor of Caterer, Hotelkeeper and Refreshment Contractors’ Gazette (now Caterer and Hotelkeeper), joined together with Dudley James, manager of Morley's Hotel in Trafalgar Square (replaced by South Africa House) to form a national association which would lobby the hospitality industry’s interests and defend it against attacks on existing conditions. As a result, they established National Hotel-Keepers Association in 1907, which by the end of the year was granted its certificate by the government as Incorporated Hotel-Keepers Association (IHKA). Out of thirty-six founder members, five hotels are still members of the BHA; nine are still in business (though, not always as hotels); and the remaining twenty-two have been demolished, redeveloped or destroyed during the World War II.
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Wikipedia