International Society for Hospitality Consultants - Article Example

A Study of the Report of International Society for Hospitality Consultants Executive Summary The report is based upon the publication of International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC). The society notified ten issues that ought to be taken care in the future which includes the vital points like lack of shortage of skilled labour and changes in the distribution system of the tourism industry. The report examines the above mentioned two points at length with due emphasis on the current scenario and future trends. Introduction With tremendous improvement in the arenas of information technology and communication process, the world is observing change in all most every industry. The effects of globalisation have further intensified the effects of changing terms and tricks of trade. The industry of tourism is neither an exception. The changing pattern of consumer behaviour (in this case that of tourists) and free flow of information have made the competition with in the industry very intense. The same can be observed from the report published by the International Society for Hospitality Consultants. In 2006, the organisation came up with ten issues that it thought to be crucial for the industry in 2007. The ten such issues were as follows: Shortage of skilled and qualified work force Increasing cost of construction and renovation Changing demographics and the resultant impact on the travelling trend with special focus on the shifting trends i.e. from baby boomers to Generation X Future of profits in hotel i.e. maintaining balance between the expense and the revenue Increasing influence of branding Distribution revolution in the tourism industry Restrictions upon free travelling by various governments from time to time Emerging global markets and its influence on the travelling patters Availability of requisite capital (International Society of Hospitality Consultants, 2006) Among the ten above mentioned issues, the most vital are perceived to be the shortage of skilled and qualified work force and change in the distribution with in the industry of tourism. Shortage of Skilled Workforce The industry of tourism is one of the most booming sectors. The growth of the industry always pointed towards north in the recent past. The recent meltdown and financial recession though have affected the growth for the time being, it is perceived to be short term as once people settle for their professions, it would again bring back the zeal to tour and know the unknown. More over, with change in the shift in the global economy, the modern tourism service providers should also be aware of the changing trends. The eastern emerging economies like China and India are still recording growth and are least affected by the global financial crisis. Therefore, the demand for quality service still exists in the industry of tourism. And their lies the essence, the quality service. One of the acute crises that the industry has been experiencing for quite some time now is that of the quality work force. According to the report provided by the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, the changing demographics, the reduced salaries, bad reputation compared to other jobs and lack of emphasis on training have been few of the reasons for the shortage of qualified work force. The present trends suggest that the tourism industry have transient work force, most of them are casual workers and therefore the staff turnover has always been on the higher side. Once presumed as the glamour industry, as it was comparatively high - paid and also it often provided with the opportunity for overseas travelling, the industry of tourism has turned to be a mere job (and not career) for a fresh graduate of today (Victoria Tourism Industry Council, n.d.). The other major factor for the purpose of acute shortage of skilled employees in the tourism sector is because of the nature of the employment. The jobs related with tourism are generally seasonal in nature. The tourism operators require more staffs during the ‘peak seasons’ as there are more tourists and the demand reduces in the ‘non-peak periods’. Therefore, many of the jobs are temporary in nature as the tourism organisations do not guarantee such jobs during the off-seasons. Such a reason also de-motivates a considerable portion of talented population to join the industry (Government of New Zealand, n.d.) Demographic changes also have major effect on the shortage of qualified staff for the tourism organisations. As the baby boomers are growing old and is attaining the age of retirement, increasing pressure is felt on the industry. The generation X and generation Y are not much interested in the tourism jobs. The other factor of concern includes the staff, who are relatively young and competent do not stick to any particular company for a long time unlike the previous generations. This fact has made the companies very sceptical about the training and development modules to be provided to the executives. The companies feel that there is no point in spending considerable sum of time and money, if the executives are not loyal to the brand. And such lack of training initiatives has invariably affected the talent pool with considerable management skills (Alberta, 2007). Another prime reason for the shortage of talented workers for tourism related services has been the long working hours related with the job. The highly paid with lesser stress non-tourism jobs have impacted upon many markets of tourism e.g. Switzerland and Australia to name a few. Such shortage has often led to increased permanent immigrations and temporary work permits in search of skilled foreign staffs. The reason that tourism has often depended upon the immigrants bears the proof of the fact that it is negatively perceived in the local market (Hall & Williams, 2002). The above points emphasises on various arguments that have led to the shortage of the workforce with the right traits and experience. The International Society for Hospitality Consultants identified many of the solutions to come out of such acute shortage and attract the efficient talent pool towards the industry. It has been observed that most of the tourism organisations no longer provide the staff with adequate training and development opportunities and so there has been an increasing trend among the work force to believe that there is no growth in the industry. To attract the really talented work force, the company has to picture out clear career growth opportunities to the prospective employees. The company can also initiate the measure of guest workers during the peak-seasons instead of recruiting temporary workers. The student perusing tourism courses or hotel management courses can be employed by the companies to handle the extra rush. This would have two way benefits. Firstly, the companies do not have to fall in to the grip of additional employability. Secondly, the companies can train the students so that as they complete their course, they feel motivated to join the organisation. In such way, the organisation can turn out to be preferred employer. Tourism organisation includes wide range of jobs. The employees often might feel the job to be monotonous. To successfully cope with such situation, the employing concern can initiate the measures like cross training and cross utilisation of resources. The executive of one department can be shifted or transferred to other department and vice versa. It would definitely help to create extra zeal among the employee force as it would call for added adventure. Even if the tourism industry at present cannot afford to increase the level of basic remuneration, it would essentially come up with competitive salary with effective incentive modules which would motivate the efficient workers to put extra effort. The basic difference of the tourism with any other industry is that tourism industry includes host of individual services like that of accommodation and lodging, food and hotel, tour operators, transport provider, local authorities and the tourist spot authorities. Therefore, it can be easily assessed the requirement of qualified and talented workforce so that it can successfully align all of the services to provide value to the tourist. With adequate funding from the reputed business houses and private-public partnership in terms of funds, training and advertisements, it can be expected that the industry will get back its glorious past soon in the future. The Distribution Revolution The few of the sectors that have witnessed wide advancements includes information technology at the top. The advancements in technology also paved way for significant development in the communication process. Citizens of new millennium have increased access to information, thanks to the inter-net and electronic media. One can comfortably learn any fact with few clicks of the computer mouse, sitting in his office or living room. Such a revolution has also affected the industry of tourism to great extent. Previously, the tourists had to visit the touring city or the site and only then they could book the hotel or the onward travel tickets. There have been many instances where after reaching the destination, the touring party found out unavailability of accommodation due to the ‘peak – period’, which led to sheer harassment of the tourists. As it is understood that the tourists do not travel under any compulsion but to enjoy their leisure, such harassments are at all not desirable. To avoid such unfortunate occurrences, the tourist parties increasingly depended upon the middle men or the tour operators. Tour operators, using their contacts at the tourist destinations, used to book the desired accommodation in exchange of specified commission as the service fee. But often, it happens so that the middlemen, in greed of extra commissions and earnings, reserved same accommodation or transport for more than one parties leading to harassment of the guests. Few of the times, the tour operators even did not bother to book any provisions for the tourists and chiffoned away with the entire money. No doubt that the massive progress of information technology has been blessing for the touring persons. Firstly because use of technology in office as well as in home have considerably reduced the long working hours as many of the works are taken care by machines and does not require humans except that of command. The fact has increased the time of leisure for the citizens and they are more interested in to tour and to see the unseen (Mahoney & Warnell, 1987). Secondly, with inter-net, most of the hotels of the modern world provide facilities to book accommodation online. Same is applicable for the travel industry as well. Sitting at one’s favourite place (be it office or the living room), one can book the tickets for to as well as fro journeys according to his schedule. Even in the arena of air industry, one is eligible to bid for his favourable prices subject to availability of seats and the time of travel. In brief, it can be well said that such involvement of information technology with the tourism industry has essentially removed the middlemen. The position of the travel agencies, which have been secured traditionally, is being speculated as the unnecessary overhead by the service providers as they can directly reach the end – customer (Anckar, 2003). Information technology has initiated revolution with in the distribution system of tourism industry. It has helped in more customisation in the choice of the products and services. The influence of IT has helped in better understanding of the customer’s needs and expectations through various online researches. The development has led to better assembling of various tourism products as it is known that the industry of tourism has numerous individual services bundled together. The new distribution system has evolved to be a transparent system and reduced the risk perceived by the end customers considerably. Also, it has taken care of the ancillary and added services like insurance of travellers, the currency exchange and other required services (Buhalis, 2000). The report published by International Society for Hospitality Consultants in 2006 also emphasised upon the fact of changing trends of distribution channels of the tourism industry. The report narrated that in 2006; US $ 24 billion worth of hotel rooms were expected to be reserved through online booking which was clearly 27% higher revenue from the figure of two years earlier. Another important point that was observed in the report was ‘levelling the play ground’. Prior to the massive involvement of information technology in to the tourism industry, it was only the big players that were known by the public in general. It was so as only those big names could afford huge sum of amount for promotional activities. They also could attract the foreign tourists by virtue of tie-ups with local associations. It was often the case that even after having the best of the services and amenities, the small and the new entrants could not attract enough customers as they missed out on the promotional campaigns. With information technology influencing the customer choice, it was no more the same. The value – conscious customers, before making any decision, considers all the option on inter-net or other forms of media and communication. It has necessarily levelled the playground and the small players are no longer on the defeated lot even before the commencement of the business. The advent of information technology has also positively affected the cost saving measures of the companies. Though the framework calls for a hefty sum at the outset i.e. at the time of the installation, but the overall it helps in various cost cutting measures. With dedicated architecture of information technology, the tourism organisations can efficiently manage the supply chain management. The organisations can locate and order to the suppliers with easy. It also contributes toward the effective inventory management of the companies. The future trends of distribution essentially call for advanced marketing and selling techniques. Such techniques should lay proper emphasis upon the technology for the company’s own benefits. Similarly, local and regional tie-ups are also necessary. The tourism organisations, in order to attract more customers should participate in the tourism fairs organised by the tourism authorities. Also, it can think of having tie-ups with similar minded organisations located in different geographical segment to have access to increased market share. To retain the existing customers and to attract newer customers, the organisations with in the tourism industry often come up with several plans e.g. economy, deluxe, basic, etc. The increased influence of technology has affected the industry in both positive as well as negative ways. There are two conflicting trends present, disintermediation and reintermediation. Disintermediation implies removing all intermediaries from the distribution channel whereas the contrasting theory suggests that intermediaries can not be totally removed, rather it exists in one form or the other (Buhalis & Costa, 2006). Conclusion The changing environment has initiated changed terms for the industry of tourism. With the increasing effect of technology and globalisation, the industry has been witnessing all time high competitions. Tourists and the customers are becoming more conscious day by day and more value for money is expected. The relationship between information technology and tourism has successfully thrived since long as it all began with Computer Reservation System (CRS) and Global Distribution System (GDS), which is claimed as the first inter-organisational relationship (Wearthner & Klean, n.d.). The basic fact that is to be realised by the tourism organisations is that to sustain with in this increasing competition, they have to create value. The customers i.e. the tourist opt for the industry only to de-stress from the daily tensions of personal and professional life. Therefore, when in tour, they expect every thing to fall into its place. It is necessary that the tourism organisations view the tourists as their guests and provide them with best of the services available. As it happens in the service industry, the environment and the people create huge differences, from one company to the company. Due to many of the factors, the industry of tourism is definitely not passing through its best of the times. Apart from the external factors like global financial meltdown and the resultant recession and job insecurity or the cut in the pay, there are also many internal factors of the industry among which shortage of the skilled workforce or non-alignment with the changing system of distribution. With the cooperation from all concerned quarters, it can be expected that the industry of tourism can move forward towards a golden future. References Alberta, 2007. Labour Market and Economic Indicators Dashboard. Tourism Industry. [Pdf] Available at: http://employment.alberta.ca/documents/WIA/WIA-ET_inform_dash_information.pdf [Accessed 02 December, 2009]. Anckar, B., 2003. E-Service Journal, Indiana University Press. Vol 2. Buhalis, D., 2000. Tourism Research. 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