The Role Played by Hospitality Industry in Supporting the Economy of London - Term Paper Example

 INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Part A: Hospitality industry in UK Introduction The hospitality industry is one of the sectors that plays key role in supporting the economic growth of UK. The hospitality industry in UK is ranked the fifth largest hospitality industry in the world. Hospitality industry is the major economic component in almost all major cities in UK. This essay will discuss the role played by hospitality industry in supporting the economy of London. The hospitality industry in London not only supports economic growth in the city, but also it has highly increased employment opportunities. Hospitality Industry is among the key pillars of London’s economy and financial driver of all parts of the United Kingdom. The industry creates a large percent of direct employment opportunities and indirect jobs through the multiplier effect that the industry has on sectors like building and food supply industries. The industry has led to the creation of other commercial business in London and other outlets such as education and healthcare catering. These provide 8% of the city’s jobs. This is the key strength of hospitality industry is that many job seekers benefit from activities of restaurants, hotels, pubs, as well as other catering events and business. The hospitality industry not only plays an essential role in the improvement of the town’s economic status but also in cultural and social life of the residents. United Kingdom is among popular destinations of tourisms around the globe, attracting more than 32 million foreign visitors every year. These tourisms generate more than £20 billion every year in the economy of London. Most of the accrued income is used to advance other sectors such as public services, health, and education. In addition, the city receives a large population of visitors each year. Most of these visitors are professionals who come for business, leisure and those who come to pay visits for relatives and friends. As a consequence of London being a global travel hub, it is currently among the largest tourism wholesalers around the world and most conventions of global travel buyers are held every year in London. Since tourism and travel is one of the integral components of today’s life, the economic benefits that are associated with hospitality industry are spread all over the London city. The city receives more than five billion pounds per year in hospitality expenditure and more than a hundred thousand people are employed hospitality sector related jobs. The more important thing is that employment and revenues generated by hospitality industry are not seasonal (Cheng 2010, p. 56). Generally, hospitality industry, especially hotel and tourism expenditure is often continuous throughout the year. This provides economic stability as well as consistent employment throughout. The hospitality industry has several distinctive features uniquely suited for creation of employment and rebuilding of the economy of London city. Since hospitality industry is a service industry, it offers employment to both skilled and non-skilled job seekers due to its labour intensive characteristic. The sector also has limited barriers to considerable unutilized capacity and to entry. These features give the industry the ability to respond to demand changes, and thus create employment more rapidly. And since hospitality jobs cannot be sourced from overseas countries or from other town, the hospitality industry in London offers employment to a large number of its residents thus enhancing the entire economic status. In addition, employment opportunities created by hospitality industry, mainly focus on resolving several key employment challenges facing London. Specifically, the hospitality industry in London produces; increased youth employment, increased social inclusion, and increased regional employment. Many school leavers in London start their careers in hospitality industry than in other sectors. The industry also offers employment to a diverse workforce and has higher part-time employment opportunities than the other industries. There are three main factors that make hospitality industry, ideally suited for improving the economy of London. These factors include; high ROI (Return on Investment), rapid ROI (Return on Investment), and hosting of Olympic Games like those of the year 2012 (Ioannides&Debbage2008, P. 89). For instance, the Olympics that were held in the UK in the year 2012 was a major international event that contributed a lot towards the growth of the country’s economy and stimulated inbound tourism in the country thus benefiting major cities London included. London is one of the cities that have fastest growing economies in the UK. The town has been reporting healthy economic growth over the past few decades. Despite the economic global slowdown that has affected many countries, the economy of London has faced limited impacts due to the growth of the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom. The attraction of the town has encouraged foreign investors to start up their hospitality facilities in the town (Go & Pine 2005, p. 63). The domestic investors have also expanded their operations by investing in opening new hospitality facilities throughout the town. The hospitality industry in London recorded a healthy economic growth over the past few years leading to a significant rise in not only the economy of London but also the entire United Kingdom. Consequently, the rates for charging hotel rooms have also increased, creating more revenues for the facility owners (Gratton, Dobson &Shibli 2000, p. 17). The rise of hotel charges in London is due to the increased gap between demand and supply of hotel rooms. Due to the increased rate of tourism in the country, hotels in London are affordable at a much higher rate than hotels in other countries. This has resulted in higher return on investment. Due to this higher return on investments in the hospitality industry, a large number of both domestic and foreign players have entered the market, thus contributing a lot towards the growth of London’s economy (Ivanov & Webster 2007, P. 379). Conclusion In conclusion, the hospitality industry is a key contributor to prosperity and economic growth in many countries especially UK. It is also contributes a lot towards improvement of social life in most towns in the United Kingdom, London being one. Without hospitality industry, and the benefits it brings towards job creation, social interaction, and income, many parts of London would be experiencing limited economic prospects. The industry is boosted and provided a strong support to the economy of London. This is because the industry is among the key sources of revenues and employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel. Part B: Personal development analysis Introduction The international hospitality industry requires a broad range of skills, including those used in lodging and food service (Jauhari 2006, P. 129). Those who want to succeed in their international hospitality career like me need to understand and acquire all the competencies and skills required to achieve a competitive advantage. In order to be employed in hospitality industry or start your own business, an individual must meet specific skills and standards for him or her to prosper in the industry or be an effective employee (Ioannides & Debbage 2007, P. 229). These skills allow an individual operating in the hospitality industry to serve customers and clients in an appropriate way. After carrying out a personal development, analysis I realized that there are some skills that I need to acquire in order to improve my chances of success in relation to my degree. After doing the development analysis, I realized that I should be able to demonstrate capability of communicating efficiently and portray high professionalism degree at all times. In order to worker in the international hospitality industry, one should also have certain personality characteristics such as dependability, friendliness, and honesty (Guerrier 2007, P. 121). Skills in the hospitality industry vary based on the type of business; however, some skills are important for most working positions in the industry. For example, pursuing a computer literacy course will be necessary because this will give me the ability to operate computer and learn using new systems. This is one of the necessary skills that am lacking necessary across international hospitality industry (Clark, Riley, Wilkie & Wood 2008, p. 78). This is because, many transactions in the industry such as hotel rooms booking are currently done online. This will be necessary to enable me to work in a customer service position such as a reservation clerk or a restaurant server. Other necessary skills that I need to improve are those stemmed in the sales and marketing department and quality control (Hoque 2009, P. 419). In order to prosper in the hospitality career one needs to have enough knowledge regarding business-specific concerns and industry. For example, for one to be employed in a hotel, he or she must have an understanding of the protocols that are related to safety and security (Clark 2005, p. 78). To be a business owner or employee, one must fully understand the rules and regulations governing the international hospitality industry (Becton & Graetz 2001, p. 105). For instance, to work in a restaurant, one must adhere to laws and regulations that are implemented to impose health standards in the entire industry. Such regulations include keeping a clean working station, storing food remains at the appropriate temperature, and being neat and clean throughout. There are other skills that I realized I should acquire to improve the chances of success in relation to my career. This includes the ability to solve problems, make data analysis, and reach conclusions (Jones & Haven 2005, P. 65). As an employee in the international hospitality industry, it is good to be able to work as a team member (Berry, Parasuraman & Zeithaml 2004, p. 32). I realized I also need to have adaptability and flexibility competency since it is for one to work in an international hospitality. Such skills come in handy in a situation where an individual meets them with challenges that are related to handling customers and teamwork (Beck, Lazer & Schmidgall 2007, p. 67). I also need to improve my competency in mathematics in order to prosper in the hospitality industry. Areas for improvement One of the skills that I need to improve is ability to demonstrate capability of communicating efficiently and portray high professionalism degree at all times. The personal development analysis portrayed to me that I lack the appropriate communication skills required for one to prosper in international hospitality. Being a good communicator is one of the key skills I need to advance in order to improve my chances of success in the international hospitality career. It is one of the skills that one can ever learn. Communication skills will lead everything I do through my career path; for instance, communicating in the workplace to achieve results, socialize with customers and meet deadlines. The most appropriate way to improve my communication skills will be re-taking communication unit for a second time (Berry, Zeithaml&Parasuraman 2004, p. 56). It will be helpful to be studying communication skill, improvement notes that are in plenty on the web after classes (Baum 2006, p. 23). After the end of first one month I will be a good communicator and this will be of much help towards my success since in order to prosper in the hospitality industry, one needs to be a good communicator. Secondly, there is need of improving my understanding of the rules and regulations governing the international hospitality industry. There are many codes, laws, and regulations to consider for one to improve his or her success in international hospitality career. In order to improve my understanding in this field, it will be necessary to seek professional legal advice from international hospitality players (Baum 2010, p. 34). This will enable me to understand all laws and regulations governing the running of hospitality business. The third area of improvement is the ability to solve problems. In order to be a good problem solver, there is also need of creative and analytical skills. These skills will be of help during evaluation of a problem and making an appropriate decision (Jones 2009, p. 56). I will make sure that by the end of my degree, I understand all methodical and logical approaches that are used to solve problems in hospitality workplace. For instance, by the end of my course, I will be able to draw on my subject or academic knowledge to identify solutions of technical or practical nature (Jones, Comfort & Hillier 2006, p. 329). Conclusion To sum it up, there are many skills that one needs to acquire in order to improve his or her chances of success in his or her international hospitality career. Carrying out a personal development analysis is one of the key tools used to determine areas of weakness and come up with appropriate ways of improving these areas. 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Jones, P, Comfort, D, & Hillier, D 2006, Reporting and reflecting on corporate social responsibility in the hospitality industry: A case study of pub operators in the UK,International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 18(4), 329-340. Read More