Hastings Hotels show £2.7m profit

The Europa is one of the hotels in the Hastings group

The Hasting Hotels group is continuing to trade profitably despite the downturn in the hospitality industry, the firm's annual accounts show.

Hastings, whose hotels include the Europa in Belfast and the Culloden in Crawfordsburn, made a pre-tax profit of £2.7m in 2009, down from £3.5m in 2008.

Turnover was £32.8m, down slightly from the previous year.

The directors said they were "satisfied" with the results and predicted another challenging year.

Last week a report by consultants ASM Howarth said the Belfast hotel market had been badly hit by a big drop in the number of business tourists.