Investigation of Current and Emerging Issues in Hospitality and Tourism - Coursework Example

Investigation of Current and Emerging Issues in Hospitality and Tourism Student name: Student number: Tutor: Date: Introduction According to the Restaurant and Catering Australia (2012), the hospitality industry comprises hotels, restaurants, cafes, accommodation and conference centres, and registered clubs. The tourism and hospitality industry is essentially labour-intensive, with wages making up the greatest proportion of the production cost. The significance of labour cost has led to the notion that in the tourism and hospitality industry, productivity and labour should be perceived as being inseparable (Peric 2005). Such a relationship shows that any means of reduction of labour cost, efficient management of resources and making the workforce much flexible needs to be adopted. Indeed, it is based on this premise that tourism enterprises have followed in the current emerging issues of seeking flexibility through de-regulation, using the internet and customer driven technology to reduce costs, and practicing environmental management and sustainability to ensure efficient resource management. Deregulation The quest for labour flexibility continues to be highlighted in Australia’s tourism and hospitality industry. It has also accelerated the need for deregulation. In particular, deregulation has happened over the last 20 years in the Australian labour market and continuous to happen. In spite of this, a concern remains as to whether deregulating the labour market can attain the much-needed flexibility given that empirical evidence carried out over the last two decades has not been conclusive (Buultjens 2001; Buultjens & Cairncross 2009). Some scholars have also argued that a high level of labour flexibility is a crucial component that can meet market demands as well as attain a more competitive environment. Deregulation has characterised Australia’s industrial relations system since the 1990s. It has been typically rationalised by the quest for improved labour flexibility. Such changes have happened at the state and federal level (Restaurant and Catering Australia 2012). Among the significant changes include introduction of individual bargaining and formalised enterprises. From the outset, the bargaining at the enterprise level became first introduced in the early 1990s by the Hawke and Keating Labour Governments. Afterwards, individual bargaining came up in 1996 after its introduction by the Howard Government under the Workplace Relations Act 1996, before its subsequent reinforcement in the Work Choices law in 2005. These legislations reflected ideas that a centralised system initially used in the industry to determine wages and working conditions through tribunal had stood in the way of labour flexibility. Subsequently, they had affected the country’s international and regional competitiveness (Buultjens & Cairncross 2009). Still, proponents to the centralised-wage determination system argued that market deregulation was critical. This is since introduction of individualised bargaining and formalised enterprise bargaining could significantly enable employers and employees in the hospitality industry to discover and pursue shared interest. Such pursuit of common interest, as Buultjens and Cairncross (2009) shows, promoted flexibility of labour as both the employees and employers stand to benefit from outcomes negotiated individually as well as the enterprise. In return, employers and stakeholder in the hospitality industry have strongly supported deregulation due to its capability to ensure flexibility. Besides, the Australia hospitality industry requires much flexibility since it operates efficiently in a flexible basis. For instance, the industry is given to function 24/7 basis, hence the labour market needs to be flexible to avoid the likely penalty rates targeted at workers (Buultjens & Cairncross 2009). Reduced wages also provide a complexity for the hospitality industry since it is currently aware of the need to promote professionalism and service-level provided to customers. Additionally, the concentrated labour environment in Australia has made the industry less attractive for job-seekers. Hence, to attract employees, and enhance professionalism, the industry needs to increase wages. Still, introduction of individual bargaining has the potential to exert pressure on wages in the industry. Internet and customer driven technology Since the 1980s, technological advancements have transformed the tourism and hospitality industry in Australia. Being an international industry and one of the largest providers of jobs in Australia, the tourism industry also has heterogeneous stakeholders (Buhalis & Law 2008). The interaction between technology and tourism over the recent past has triggered significant changes to the industry in terms of promoting efficiency, reduction of costs and more flexibility of the workforce. Indeed, as stated by Bethapudi (2013), the importance of integrating the internet and customer-driven technologies had brought about greater levels of interaction leading to improved management of the employees and customers. The internet has played a significant role in ensuring competitiveness of the organizations in the hospitality and tourism sector, the tourism destination and the whole industry (Service Skills Australia 2013). For instance, development of search engines such as Google and greater internet penetration and use of customer management software such as Customer Resource Management (CRM). As established by the Tourism Research Australia, the internet is becoming greatly exploited for purposes of ensuring consumer decision-making for making hotel bookings and organising of trips. In 2012, statistics by the Tourism Research Australia indicated that 62% of the international tourists and 37% of the domestic tourists relied on the internet to organize for trips (Service Skills Australia 2013). According to Bethapudi (2013), many businesses operating in the industry have established a strong online presence, from tours and travel, to accommodations. In 2012, Service Skills Australia (2013) shows that 42% of the businesses in tourism industry owned a website that offered regularly update information on their location, services, and price. Additionally, 19% of the businesses owned a website for online payments while 27 percent owned a website for online bookings. Service Skills Australia (2013) suggests that currently, businesses that have not established online presence have failed to remain competitive. While use of the internet and customer-driven technologies have increased, a central part in ensuring successes is having a high level of expertise to operate and manage the technologies (Buhalis & Law 2008). Currently, an increased number of hotels and destinations use mobile devices to minimize costs and improve their services. Some restaurants are using computer tablets for menus. At the same time, there is a great potential for technologies to aid in fulfilling the needs of visitors who speak foreign language. Still, the frontline employees would need training in digital literacy-skills (Bethapudi 2013). The growth of the internet had also allowed businesses to advertise themselves on websites, blogs and social networking sites cost-effectively. This makes it possible for businesses to communicate in real-time with their customers. Data by Service Skills Australia (2013), shows that in 2009, more than 40% of the businesses used the social media. Indeed, over the recent past, the industry has witnessed the development of mobile phone apps that enable ‘just-in-time’ information for customer. Examples include ‘Go Places’ that reviews destinations of choice. Environmental management and sustainability Sustainable tourism refers to a set of development initiatives aimed at addressing the needs of the present generation without compromising that of the future. Over the last two decades, environmental sustainability has been a critical concern to Australia’s tourism and hospitality industry (Kendall College 2014). As Beeton et al (2007), explained, the percentage of small enterprises that have made substantial income through tourism is nearly one-third of the entire small businesses in the country. Still, industry players have expressed concern to the high degree of adoption of such practices in the industry. Globally, environmental management has transformed into a vital issue for the tourism and hospitality industry after demands for sustainable tourism management and awareness among stakeholders, such as the government, industry regulators and the tourists (Mensah 2007). The trend is currently being meticulously pursued by Australian hotels to ensure efficient use of resources. Indeed, the environmental management initiatives have characterized the pursuit for sustainable tourism development (Mensah 2007). In Australia, sustainability influences many areas of conference centres, hotels, front of house, venues, operations management, food and beverage and housekeeping. Additionally, varied stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry, such as restaurants, hotels, destination managers, and conference centres have integrated sustainable tourism (Kendall College 2014). The significance of the need for survival for the present and future can be generalized as utility of efficient use of resources. The elements that significantly contribute to sustainable practices include food security, human resources, energy, and ecosystem and species (Mensah 2007). These however also comprise sustainable practices linked to work culture and practices. At this rate, since tourism is principally a people-centred industry, education and training of the workforce is crucial if the sustainability practices have to be attained (Beeton et al 2007). Conclusion Tourism enterprises need to adopt any means of reducing labour cost, efficient management of resources and making the workforce much flexible. Indeed, it is based on this premise ensuring flexibility through de-regulation, using the internet and customer driven technology to reduce costs, and practicing environmental management and sustainability to ensure efficient resource management have become critical tourism enterprise practices. Deregulation has been typically rationalised by the quest for improved labour flexibility as both the employees and employers stand to benefit from outcomes negotiated individually as well as the enterprise. On the other hand, the internet and customer-driven technology have triggered significant changes to the industry in terms of promoting efficiency, reduction of costs and more flexibility of the workforce. Lastly, environmental management has transformed into a vital issue for the tourism and hospitality industry to ensure utility of efficient use of resources. Reference List Beeton, S, Bergin-Seers, S & Lee, C 2007, Environmentally Sustainable Practices Of Victorian Tourism Enterprises, CRC for Sustainable Tourism, Gold Coast, Queensland Bethapudi, A 2013, "The Role of ICT in Tourism Industry," Journal of Applied Economics and Business vol 1 iss 4, pp.67-79 Buhalis, D & Law, R 2008, "Twenty years on and 10 years after the Internet: The state of eTourism research," Tourism Management, viewed 15 Jan 2014, Buultjens, J 2001, 'Labour flexibility in the hospitality industry: questioning the relevance of deregulation', International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 60-70. Buultjens, J & Cairncross, G 2009, “The Australian hospitality industry's response to formalised enterprise and individual bargaining prior to the Rudd government," Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management vol 16, Mensah, I 2007, "Environmental management and sustainable tourism development: The case of hotels in Greater Accra Region (GAR) of Ghana," Journal of Retail and Leisure Property vol. 6, pp.15–22 Peric, V 2005, Tourism And Globalization, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the Faculty of Management Koper Congress Centre Bernardin, Slovenia, 24–26 November 2005 Restaurant and Catering Australia (R&CA) 2012, Submission for the PRoductivity Commission into the Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail industry 2011, viewed 15 Jan 2015, Service Skills Australia 2013, Tourism, Travel and Hospitality, viewed 15 Jan 2014, Read More