Hospitality Rising has been paused as it seeks further funding.
The recruitment initiative, created by Mark McCulloch in 2021, aims to be the world’s biggest hospitality recruitment campaign and tackle the ongoing struggles in the sector’s labour market.
Its vision is to attract the next generation of talent into hospitality by changing the deep-rooted negative perceptions of hospitality amongst UK nationals.
In a message on Linkedin, McCulloch said that to reach its vision, the initiative would need a 5-10 year continuous national advertising campaign costing circa £1m+ per year.
”Unfortunately, this funding is not available at present, which has led me to the decision to pause the Hospitality Rising campaign for now.
“However, should the funding become available we will be ready and waiting to jump into action as the campaign and the team will be ready to go,” he added.
”For now, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us in any way, big or small.”
Through an initial fundraise of £1m, and its inaugural campaign, “Rise Fast, Work Young”, the initiative said it helped change the perception of people considering working in hopsitlaity form one in five to one in three.
It has reached 50% of 18-30 year olds across the UK with the campaign at least once, with 46% saying that they recall seeing the campaign and 76% adding that it would make them want to work in hospitality too.
