Contemporary Hospitality Industry - Assignment Example

Contemporary Hospitality Industry Table of Contents Introduction 2 1.1 Definition, Benefits and Types of Hospitality Industry 4 1.2 Organisational Structure, Operational and Functional Area in the Hospitality Industry 5 1.3 Hospitality related Organisational and Professional Bodies 6 1.3.1 People 1st 7 1.3.1 British Hospitality Association (BHA) 7 1.3.2 British Institute of Innkeepers (BII) 7 2.1 Type of Staff in Hospitality Industry 8 2.2 Types of Degree and Qualifications Needs for Hospitality Staff 9 3.1 PESTEL Analysis of Hospitality Organisations 10 3.1.1 Political Factors 10 3.1.2 Economic Factor 10 3.1.3 Socio-Cultural Factors 11 3.1.4 Technological Factors 11 3.1.5 Environmental Factors 12 3.1.6 Legal Factors 12 3.2 Issues relating to Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality Industry 12 3.2.1 Recent Issues Associated with CSR in Hospitality Industry 13 3.2.2 Current Trends in the Hospitality Industry 14 4.1 Globalisation Technological Development, Changing of Food Habits 15 4.2 Future Trends in the Hospitality Industry 16 Conclusion 18 References 19 Introduction Assessing the recent developments in the hospitality industry, organisations have been widely observed to obtain extensive growth following an unconventional managerial and operations tactic and thereby contribute a large portion of global economy. With focus on its productivity and economic significance in the developing knowledge-based nations, the hospitality industry has been designated as one of the world’s largest industries in terms of earning revenues and also as a prevalent employer in the global context. Subsequently, the industry has today gained the fame as a major contributor for Gross National Products (GNP), regional development along with employment opportunities within the global economy (British Hospitality Association, 2010). Keeping with the intensive development along with continuous success experienced by the global hospitality industry, the primary focus of this report is to provide an in-depth understanding regarding the current industrial trends on the basis of its typography, structure, ownership guidelines and other essential factors. The discussion hereafter also incorporates adequate information associated with the operational areas, professional bodies, required educational skills along with a critical analysis of the external environmental factors of the global hospitality industry. 1.1 Definition, Benefits and Types of Hospitality Industry ‘Hospitality’, can be defined as a well-built corporate establishment that ensures to provide meals, refreshments along with accommodation facilities as services in terms of mutual benefits for both the clients and the organisation as well. In general, the concept of hospitality industry can also be termed as an effective blend of tangible and non-tangible products and/or services in order to meet the desired expectations of the clients who commonly comprise tourists. It basically incorporates three core categories including food, accommodation and refreshments (National College of Business Administration, 2009). The dimension serving food and beverage in the hospitality industry tends to incorporate restaurants, pubs and night-clubs among others. Similarly, the extensive numbers of resorts and hotels can be considered as the accommodation categories in the respective industry. According to the recent developments of different products and/or services, the services provided through the travel and tourism companies can also be regarded as a major division of the hospitality industry that empowers the competitive position of the global hospitality industry. As apparent, the organisations in the contemporary hospitality industry includes various types of ownership structures ranging from government or publicly owned proprietorships, joint-ventures, partnerships and franchises among others. Comparatively, joint-ventures and franchises of organisations can be widely observed than the other ownership structures in the present hospitality business industry (National College of Business Administration, 2009). Notably, due to the extensive competitive scenario in the global business environment, the hospitality industry have been witnessed to incorporate wide ranging variety of services and facilities that commonly includes airline services, cruise-lines, theme parks and planning events among others (Barrows & Powers, 2008). 1.2 Organisational Structure, Operational and Functional Area in the Hospitality Industry The hospitality industry encompasses a broad number of divisions and sub-divisions where each of those involves different operational functions based upon their organisational structures. The present structure of hospitality industry constitutes different sectors that can be characterised into three major segments such as private or commercial, public as well as voluntary or non-profit organisation. The following pictorial representations depict the overall structure of the hospitality industry along with basic structure of the public and privately owned service providers including the types of the organisations and their diversified range of services. Hospitality Industry Structure (Pearson Education Limited, n.d.) Organisational Structure and different Functional Areas of publicly and privately Owned Hospitality Service Providers (Andrews, 2007) 1.3 Hospitality related Organisational and Professional Bodies The global hospitality industry incorporates varied professional bodies that are highly focused on offering extensive support and assistance to the organisations within the respective sector. Few of the major professional bodies and their roles have been mentioned hereunder. 1.3.1 People 1st People 1st, can be recognised as one of the major professional bodies in the hospitality industry, which involves transforming skills and competencies, especially in the areas including customer services, management roles, technical skills and leadership responsibilities. The association ensures to effectively use the public funds and develop the qualifications and initiatives with an intention to meet the objectives of the employers in the hospitality industry (People 1st, 2013). 1.3.1 British Hospitality Association (BHA) British Hospitality Association (BHA) can be regarded as one of the major trade associations, which play a major role across the respective industry. BHA is one of the leading representative professional bodies, which aims to deliver extensive support to the hotels, fast-food service providers as well as restaurant businesses across the different UK destinations. Moreover, the association also involves representing adequate policies and principles in order to meet the ultimate objective of the industry (British Hospitality Association, 2013). 1.3.2 British Institute of Innkeepers (BII) The British Hospitality Institute of Innkeepers (BII) can also be considered as one of the major bodies in the global hospitality industry. The professional body of the BII generally tends to establish and develop professional standards and promote those to provide adequate support to each group of stakeholders linked with the hospitality industry (Hospitality GUILD, 2013). 2.1 Type of Staff in Hospitality Industry The staffing structure in the hospitality industry includes various management professionals and hierarchies who are being selected according to their skills and competencies. The global employers in the respective industry also tend to engage staff members from different cultural and racial backgrounds. As it has been observed that the industry involves wide variety of jobs, it essentially requires different staff members to accomplish different job roles within the organisation. The staffing requirements in different hospitality organisations can further be recognised according to the services and roles of the particular organisation (Whitelaw & et. al., 2009). In this context, the skilled staff members are highly preferred by the organisations due to their knowledge, experience intelligence and communication skills. While the semi-skilled staff members in the hospitality industry are generally recruited and provided adequate training in order to meet the required skills for the profession (Tangient LLC, n.d.). In the similar context, the accommodation service providers, such as hotels and tourism organisations, lobbies and other hospitality institutions involve diverse workforce due to its different types of services. The accommodation service providers generally incorporate operational managers, front office managers, supervisors and operative staff members (Whitelaw & et. al., 2009). Therefore, a majority of the hospitality service providers are significantly aligned with casual agencies in order to obtain large numbers of skilled, semi-skilled, volunteering and expatriate workers required to accomplish different functional activities of the organisations. 2.2 Types of Degree and Qualifications Needs for Hospitality Staff With reference to accomplish and refurbish the diverse range of hospitality services, the organisations seek to obtain skilled and highly competent staff members in order to increase the efficiency associated with the services. In this regard, the qualification or educational background of the staff members is also an essential consideration while incorporating staff members in the organisation. Therefore, the organisations generally tend to incorporate the members in accordance with their educational qualifications along with professional and personal skills and competencies. In this regard, the educational qualification of the members significantly defines their preferred designation in the organisations. For instance, required qualification for the managerial posts in the industry, organisations often classify that the individuals must need to possess minimum bachelor degree in the hospitality management along with relevant experience in this specific field of operations. In the similar context, the minimum qualification requirement for the designation of craft staff in the industry specifies that the individuals should have an educational diploma in hospitality and catering management along with relevant supervising skills and competencies (Whitelaw & et. al., 2009). 3.1 PESTEL Analysis of Hospitality Organisations 3.1.1 Political Factors Political disturbances along with imbalances and unsympathetic governmental regulations have major influences on the continuous development of the global hospitality industry. The budding growth of the hospitality industry in the UK, Australia, South-East Asia and Middle-East countries can be recognised due to the greater support of the governmental regulations and political influences (Sustainable Business Associates, 2008). 3.1.2 Economic Factor The hospitality industry is also known as a major contributor for Gross National Products (GNP), regional developments along with employments within the economic contexts to accelerate the growth potentials of a particular company and has therefore proven quite beneficial for currently developing knowledge based economies such as China, Malaysia and India. The hospitality industry in the present business world possesses a prominent position in terms of earning revenues in most of the developed or developing countries. As per the present economic performance of the industry, it has been observed that the core hospitality market has been estimating a turnover of GBP 90 billion as it also ensures to possess more than 2.4 million of employers in its different business practices all over the world (British Hospitality Association, 2010). 3.1.3 Socio-Cultural Factors Socio-cultural factors certainly have a major bearing regarding the development of hospitality industry. The diversified tastes and preferences, cultural norms along with linguistic barriers persisting not only within the workforce but also amid the organisations and the targeted customers can be observed as significantly impactful on the organisations to provide hospitality services to the global clients. However, the hospitality organisations considerably tend to emphasise cultural diversity while performing business operations through dealing with peoples from different age groups, sexes, cultures, races as well as linguistic backgrounds (EYGM Limited, 2012). 3.1.4 Technological Factors The technological factors in the hospitality industry can be identified to radically transform the service facilities and management functions through the intervention of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In relation to the recent phenomenon, the integration of ICTs have enabled the organisations to minimise costs along with provide quality based services to their potential customers. The major facilities in this regard have been including e-reservation, online booking, mobility and social media services that have altogether improved the performance of the industry to a noteworthy extent (Sustainable Business Associates, 2008). 3.1.5 Environmental Factors The organisations in the present hospitality industry can be identified to continuously strive towards reducing their impacts on the environment. In this regard, the organisations significantly focuses on promoting different environmental initiatives including waste management, effective use of natural resources along with energy efficiency programs that have provided significant contributions to the organisations in reducing the impacts of their operational conducts on the environment (Sustainable Business Associates, 2008). 3.1.6 Legal Factors The organisations in the present global hospitality industry tend to uphold adequate compliance with the regulatory or legal bindings of the countries. The legal compliances of the organisations incorporate effective policies regarding the hospitality facilities in accordance with the legal aspects of the global countries. In this context, the organisational policies associated with Human Resource, trade regulations along with gender equalities are strictly maintained by the marketers in accordance with the legal policies of the countries (Sustainable Business Associates, 2008). 3.2 Issues relating to Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality Industry The present scenario of the industry has demonstrated ample number of business strategies, which has enabled the industry to attain substantial growth. However, different issues can be identified as significantly affecting the organisations to obtain continuous growth in the respective business industry. In relation to the recent phenomenon, the issue associated with the organisational Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be stated as the major concern despite the operational and managerial functions that are practiced by the modern hospitality organisations (Barth, 2008). 3.2.1 Recent Issues Associated with CSR in Hospitality Industry Focusing on the recent trend in the hospitality industry, the issues associated with labour management can be regarded as one of the major concerns for the organisations and thus, can be frequently observed within the sector. It is worth mentioning that the organisations often face the issues associated with time schedule along with performance management processes of the organisations. Related to the issue associated with time schedule can be argued as a long-standing concern, since the service industry has often been criticised to lack in justifying the appropriate time required for the employees to deliver services to each group of its clients. In relation to the recent scenario, it can be identified that numbers of employees frequently switch to different industries due to the unjustified time schedule of work in this particular sector. Therefore, the increasing numbers of employees in the respective industry can be considered as a growing CSR issue faced by marketers commonly in the present business world (Lynn, 2009). According to the present business scenario, the hospitality service providers are frequently involved in different legislative issues. The legislative issues concerning fair wages, equal employment rights along with various environmental related concerns have been accounted as the major influencing factors that can be witnessed in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the industry had also faced different challenges of policy violation practices in terms of providing quality based services to its potential customers. The organisations of this particular industry has also faced challenges of breaching human rights concerning working hours, unfair wage structure as well as rigid working structure of the organisations in its recent endeavours. Therefore, non-compliance of legal bindings associated with environment can also be taken into account as major causing factors of the hindering performances in the hospitality industry (Barth, 2008). 3.2.2 Current Trends in the Hospitality Industry In relation to the changing phenomenon in the hospitality industry, the recent trend significantly depicts the growing interests of the marketers towards the implementation of CSR activities. Organisations in the hospitality industry are often observed to involve range of initiatives and developmental programs in order to increase the efficiency of the industry. The developmental programs and initiatives of the organisations are further considerably intended towards developing communities along with welfare of the societies (Lynn, 2009). In order to effectively deal with the aforesaid CSR issues, recent trends of the hospitality service providers can be identified to take immediate measures regarding the growing unemployment rate across the different paradigms of the global hospitality industry. In this regard, the industry players are frequently observed to increase the numbers of full-time and part-time employees for different operational and managerial functions of the organisations. According to the present day context, the industry has been recognised as the major employer as compared to the other business fields (Mattera & Melgarejo, 2012). Additionally, the continuous effort of conducting different philanthropic initiatives regarding education and community healthcare programs can also be considered as the major strategies of the organisations often adapted towards ensuring the improvement of CSR activities. Moreover, the organisations have also been recognised to increase their amount of investments and interests through encouraging continuous developments of the environment along with welfare of the communities in different regions of the world (Lynn, 2009). 4.1 Globalisation Technological Development, Changing of Food Habits It is in this context that the rapid growth and transformational changes in the present hospitality services play a major role in ensuring the overall accomplishment of continuous development in the future business world. The organisations in the respective industry also tend to deliver quality and value of their services through the effective incorporation of different development strategies. With this concern, the extensive integration of technological advancements can be considered as the major contributing factor in terms of enhancing the quality as well as value of the hospitality services. The adequate usage of technological equipment in the hospitality services is also considered as one of the emerging trends, which has substantially aided the industry players to identify the needs and desires of the global customers. According to the present trend of the organisations in the hospitality industry, it can be observed that the use of social media is a major supportive element, which facilitates the organisations to promote their range of services and accommodation facilities across a diverse group of potential customers (Jin-zhao & Jing, 2009). Moreover, the trends in the hospitality industry have further been witnessed to grab a significant opportunity through strategic alignment in accordance with the changing food habits of the global clients. The changing food habits of the clients from the last few decades have significantly influenced the hospitality service providers in terms of gaining higher values along with enhancing brand positions on a continuous and competitive basis. In relation to the present day context, the changing food habits of the global customers have significantly enabled the hospitality service providers to successfully expand their business locations in diverse markets. The adequate usage of technological equipments in the hospitality services is also attributable as one of the emerging trends, which has enabled the organisations to identify the needs and desires of the global customers and suffice them in due course of earning greater customer satisfaction as well as brand loyalty (Brotherton, 2013). 4.2 Future Trends in the Hospitality Industry With regard to the recent trends in the hospitality industry, the global hospitality industry has been identified to achieve a phenomenal growth in terms of service quality, customer satisfaction along with increasing numbers of service facilities. The recent trend in the hospitality sector has been recognised to critically identify impacts of the business strategies performed by the organisations in the particular sector. In this context, the areas, such as technological involvement, brand promotion as well as continuous expansion of the business units can be widely observed to increase the performance along with the sustainability of the industry players to a substantial extent. Moreover, the business strategies of the organisations have also been witnessed to forecast the changing trend of the customers in terms of food habits, accommodation facilities along with the quality of services delivered. In this context, the organisations have been successfully able to develop hospitality operations in accordance with the needs and expectations of the customers. However, it is also important for the present hospitality service providers to forecast the potential risks associated with the changing trends identifiable in the market periphery. With this regard, the risks associated with service quality and customer care issues can be stated as few of the major aspects that are led by the changing trends within the industry. Therefore, it is also important for the organisations in the hospitality industry to critically understand and analyse the desired expectations of the customers in order to increase quality along with provide effective service facilities (Lynn, 2009; Jin-zhao & Jing, 2009). Additionally, the issue associated with ownership structure is also a major concern for the hospitality service providers in the recent phenomenon. In this regard, the strategy of public-private partnership is quite likely to enable the organisations to make continuous developments within the hospitality services and proactively address the potential needs and desires of the future customers (Brotherton, 2013). Conclusion The notion of continuous developments along with robust changes in the hospitality industry has recent been witnessed as the major success drivers for the industry players, replicating the industry as one of the leading and sustainable business sectors when compared to the other business industries. Drawing inferences from the in-depth analysis conducted above, it has been critically identified that the organisations in the hospitality industry are highly motivated with the fiercely developing major environmental factors across the different regions of the world. However, the organisations have also been identified to face significant issues to cope with the fiercely changing recent trends in this particular industry. In this context, the commonly identifiable issues associated with service quality/assurance, customer care along with cultural aspects can be recognised to significantly influence the performances of individual organisations at a large extent. In this context, the strategies associated with customer care issues and quality of the diverse range of hospitality services can significantly improve the performance of the modern institutions. Moreover, adequate compliance with the legal bindings and continuous focus on CSR strategies can enable the hospitality industry to maintain its prominent position and uphold long-term sustainability. References Andrews, S., 2007. Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality Industry. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Barth, S. C., 2008. Hospitality Law: Managing Legal Issues in the Hospitality Industry. John Wiley and Sons. Barrows, C. W. & Powers, T., 2008. Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. John Wiley & Sons. British Hospitality Association, 2013. Who is the British Hospitality Association? About. [Online] Available at: http://www.bha.org.uk/about/ [Accessed November 30, 2013]. Brotherton, B., 2013. International Hospitality Industry. Routledge. British Hospitality Association, 2010. 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