Issues in Hospitality and Tourism - Term Paper Example

Essay on Hospitality or Tourism This discussion is focused on some of the current issues in hospitality and tourism and deals with the challenges that seem to affect or even drive the industry. Some of the issues that will be discussed here relate to challenges, barriers, capabilities of the organisations and industry as well as the implementation of service delivery models and principles of human resource management and corporate social responsibility. The importance of hospitality, innovation, customer choices and operational strategies are discussed along with issues related to employee satisfaction, recruitment and workforce management. Duncan (2005) suggested eight main areas of concern for the hospitality industry including taxation issues, employments issues and environmental issues. Hospitality and tourism organisations tend to hold a powerful position and the associations show the global nature of the issues of concern within the hospitality industry. O’Connor (2005) shows the meaning of genuine hospitality and suggests whether a better understanding of the industry can help it move towards the right direction. The hospitableness of the industry shows whether human characteristic is innate, nurtured or developed. The history and origins of hospitality are developed and hospitality origins and place in human nature are dealt with to show what hospitality means to those who enter the industry. Measures of hospitableness are used in the staff recruitment process and form an important aspect of service delivery. O’Connor recommends how measures of hospitableness could be used in service delivery and in general workings of the industry. The impact of innovation on customer choices within the hotel and leisure industry has also been studied and Victorino et al (2005) discuss the influence of creation of new services on service development and operational strategy. They study the need of innovation in hotel services industry and suggest that the hotel service concept is a tool for managers to decide on the implementation of innovations. The study is based on travellers within the US and web based data acquisition approach and travellers are segmented by reasons of their travel and discrete choice and this is marked by customer preferences and hotel service innovations and choices. Service innovation seems to matter for guests who select hotels and types of lodging seem to have a large impact on customer hotel choices. Service innovation is also found to have a large influence on choices especially when guests decide to stay at different range of hotels from mid range to up scale (Victorino et al, 2005). Innovative amenities such as childcare programs and in room kitchenettes seem to be more appropriate for leisure travellers than business travellers. The customer choices allow managers to design service offerings and formulate operational strategies around customer needs. Apart from innovation which seems to be one of the major issues in the hotel and leisure industry, the other concerns are on the degree or extent of hospitableness and highlight some of the common global problems within the hospitality industry. Staff recruitment and innovation on customer choices, hospitableness of staff and service delivery are some of the factors that drive the hotel and leisure industry. The challenges and barriers of working within the hospitality industry show the application of best practices and the work culture within such industries in the UK. Hwang and Lockwood (2006) show through in depth interviews conducted with owners, managers and staff of winning businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry. In the study, the authors used a holistic and multiple case analysis approach and formed a profile of the hospitality and tourism industry in the UK. The capabilities and barriers of implementation have been described and the emphasis has been on customer focused goals, planning, control, internal and external communication within the industry and its organizations, partnering or networking with other organizations, achieving consistent standards, strategic workforce management, cash flow and performance management (Hwang and Lockwood, 2006). The barriers of implementing best practice within the industry could be changing demands, limited resources in an organisation, lack of skilled labour, lifestyle, lack of competitive benchmarking and location that seem to be some major hindrances within the operational environment. Tourism and hospitality industries seem to be associated with many barriers that are obstacles to competitive benchmarking and may also impede the growth of business. As far as the use of strategies is concerned, a lot of diversity is seen in small and medium sized enterprises and certain difficulties and challenges seem to be unique to smaller organizations. The barriers and challenges of organisations emphasise on the decision making process, the dynamics of HR management, the problems of limited labour and resources, and partnering and networking within the industry. Just as achieving consistent standards would be a major approach to performance management, the barriers in achieving such standards seem to create hindrances not just within the operational environment but also within the industry in general. Ottenbacher et al (2006) discussed the factors that can lead to the success of new service development projects. Their study involved data collection via questionnaires which were obtained from hospitality managers who were knowledgeable about new service development within their organisations. The study helped in identification of some of the factors that are responsible for successful NSD projects in the hospitality industry. The factors identified in the success of new service development include market attractiveness, strategic human resource management, market responsiveness, employee commitment, empowerment, training of employees, and marketing synergy (Ottenbacher et al 2006). The human resource management issues and factors in NSD highlight the scope of the NSD research and the factors that could bring in positive changes to management and employee relationships with the management. This essay focuses on several issues within hospitality industry and tourism management that deals with employee needs and expectations, human resource management, the challenges faced by the industry, the decision making processes and progressive changes within an organisation and industry especially with regard to new service development and implementation of best practice. As already discussed, the issues of innovation and marketing strategies are important within the organisation although barriers, challenges and capabilities of organisations would have to be discussed further to understand the dynamics of HR management in organisations and especially within the hospitality industry. The importance of hospitableness and innovation in management and service delivery apart, the factors that lead to positive changes within an industry have been discussed alongside the barriers and challenges to the development of the hospitality industry. Along with challenges and barriers, the working of the hospitality industry and current issues could also be described on the basis of corporate social responsibility and the characteristics and origins of CSR have been discussed by Jones et al (2006). The study briefly describes the operations of pubs in the UK and show the approach of pub operators to issues dealing with corporate social responsibility. The issues focused in the paper relate to the four major areas of the marketplace; the workplace; the environment; and the community and usually all organizations have to remain equally responsible to these four areas of operations (Jones et al, 2006). Every company within the hospitality industry should remain committed to issues that positively affect the corporate image and individual choices and the pub industry has a major social responsibility in promoting and encouraging responsible drinking. Some of the issues of corporate social responsibility could be addressed by both individuals and companies and CSR issues and agendas are highlighted in the discussion to show the importance of CSR along with challenges and barriers within the industry. Thus challenges, barriers, implementation of service delivery issues, adequate focus on human resource management, innovation and implementation of corporate social responsibility within the industry would be some of the major issues that seem to affect the hospitality industry. The importance of workforce and strategic implementation of human resource management principles seem to drive the industry positively although this entire discussion has highlighted the importance of overcoming barriers within the workplace and larger environment and the importance of understanding employee needs along with market orientation using hospitality, innovation and customer service and new service development as key tools of success within the industry. Bibliography Duncan, Tara (2005) Current issues in the global hospitality industry Tourism and Hospitality Research, Volume 5, Number 4, pp. 359-366(8) Hwang, Li-Jen Jessica; Lockwood, Andrew (2006) Understanding the challenges of implementing best practices in hospitality and tourism SMEs Benchmarking: An International Journal, Volume 13, Number 3, pp. 337-354(18) Jones, Peter; Comfort, Daphne; Hillier, David (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, Volume 18, Number 4, pp. 329-340(12) Ottenbacher, Michael; Gnoth, Juergen; Jones, Peter (2006) Identifying determinants of success in development of new high-contact services: Insights from the hospitality industry International Journal of Service Industry Management, Volume 17, Number 4, pp. 344-363(20) OConnor, Daniel (2005) Towards a new interpretation of "hospitality" International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Volume 17, Number 3, pp. 267-271(5) Victorino, Liana; Verma, Rohit; Plaschka, Gerhard; Dev, Chekitan (2005) Service innovation and customer choices in the hospitality industry Managing Service Quality, Volume 15, Number 6, pp. 555-576(22) Read More