Hospitality industry swott - Essay Example

Hospitality industry SWOTT Dear Ignore the introduction if it is not needed in your requirement. Thank you Introduction Presently, a numberof factors including the uneven recovery from the global economic crisis and diversion of national development agenda from tourism has resulted in a situation whereby the rapid growth that was previously associated with the hospitality industry seem to be dwindling. In a recent news item it was published that “the tourist industry has struggled to maintain adequate demand as people have less discretionary income to afford vacations” (Hotel Managers Group, 2011).

The item continued to explain that “this has made it tough for any hotel operator to maintain their profit margins in the face of decreasing growth prospects.” Because of the changing trend in patronage, it has become necessary that hospitality owners seek proactive ways in which they can cater for the future survival of their investment. One of the ways is having a reflection at the SWOT analysis of individual hospitality destinations and basing on the analysis for make informed and forecasting decisions for the future. I. Future As noted in the introduction, the agenda for which a lot of people travelled has now changed (Hotel Managers Group, 2011).

Today, people travel for business purposes more than for leisure and holiday. As a way of meeting the future challenge and this new changing trend, hospitality agencies has to open itself up more to target major companies who would need their facility for business meetings. If this should happen, the implication to hospitality agencies for the future is that their traditional role of accommodating visitors overnight would have to change. Though the giving out of conference rooms and other facilities for meetings was originally part of the traditional role of hospitality companies, the latter would now have to take the fore front in commanding income and revenue.

In order to utilize this changing trend well, managers are admonished to focus more attention on making their meeting outlets, receptions and services more improved and advanced. Even though people travel less for tourism purposes of late, patronage of leisure activities such as the use of casinos keep rising (McCain, 2008). Because of this, hotel managers are advised to consider as future innovation, the need to incorporate the operation of casinos into their services. This is because once casinos are added there will not be the need to attract only foreign visitors but domestic users as well.

It would also make the overall functionality of the hospitality facilities expanded (Knowles, 2009). Knowing what the future would hold for their company if they invested more in casinos, it was reported that “Asia’s third largest casino company is paying $236 million for the 14 acres of waterfront land surrounding The Miami Herald” (Miami Herald, 2011). Other hospitality companies are admonished to make such moves for the future of their businesses. II. SWOT Strength A major strength for the hospitality industry is that it represents a very large portion of the American labor force.

For instance there are figures like 12.7 employed workers in restaurants, 50,000 operating hotels, over 4.6 million hotel rooms and 1.8 millions employees in lodging industry (NDSU Fact sheet index, 2011). The implication of these statistics to insiders of the hospitality industry is that they can always have readily available human resources to take up duties. It is recommended that as rapidly as possible, the human resources be given needed training and upgrading that will make advanced human capital for the merging markets of tomorrow.

Weakness Ironically, the weakness of the hospitality industry is directly associated with its strength. Unfortunately, even though the industry employs a lot of human resource, the pay for the industry is relatively low. This situation creates employee turnover, which eventually affects the successful management of businesses. There is however a way out to this. It is recommended that managers try to motivate employees through other remunerative other than tangible rewards like money. This can be done by sponsoring employees to take up higher education so that as a way of showing commitment to the company for the gesture, employees who receive such benefits would be made to serve their parent companies for specific number of years.

Opportunities A major opportunity for hospitality industry is the continual strengthening of global economic ties and loosening of international boundaries that otherwise did not make it easy for people to travel across borders or for reasons such as tourism, holidaying and starting of businesses offshore. Paulson (2009) for instance notes of how American companies are taking advantage of bilateral trade agreements with China to expand their hospitality industry to reach China. All stakeholders in the hospitality industry are admonished to take such advantages.

Threat The hospitality industry faces the threat of competition. This is because more and more investors seem to be focusing on the hospitality industry. Existing players are therefore advised to have competitive advantages that will make them better choices over their competitors. There is also the threat of economic slowdown and external interferences such as change in government. These can however be managed by having long term strategic plans, that will not be dependent on short term economic or political changes.

Trends The existing trend in the hospitality industry is that the industry is dependent on seasonal booms. For instance during tertiary school holidays such as long vacation and the summer season, patronage goes up because a lot of people go out on luxurious vacations. Industry players are supposed to take advantage of this trend to know the best times to present their promotions, publicities and development strategies. REFERENCE LIST Hotel Managers Group (2011). Hotel Industry Expecting Robust Growth in 2011 and 2012.

Retrieved October 20, 2011 from http://www.hmghotels.com/Hotel-Industry-News.html Knowles B. H. A (2009). Overview of Casino Operation in the United States. University Printing Press: New York. McCain H. T. (2008). Substitute for Tourism. Amazing Grace Publishing House: Washington D.C Miami Herald (2011). Miami Herald parent sells land for $236 million; newspaper operations unaffected. retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/27/2238011/miami-herald-parent-sells-land.

html NDSU Fact sheet index (2011). Hospitality and Tourism Management. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/academic/factsheets/hde/hotmotrs.shtml Paulson H. M (2009). A Strategic Economic Engagement. Retrieved October 20, 2011 from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63567/henry-m-paulson-jr/a-strategic-economic-engagement