The Growth of the Hospitality Industry - Paper Example

Introduction

Hospitality is a broad industry that incorporates various fields of work and service. The field is composed of event planning, theme parks, transportation, traveling, lodgings, cruise lines, and other services. Being a multibillion-dollar industry, it has been subjected to various improvements and development in the plight of ensuring that customers receive justifiable service to their most preferred satisfaction (Byrne and Skinner, 2007). Hospitality denotes a cordial and generous reception of guests with multiple forms of comfort and entertainment with kind of generous liberality for a particular payment in the service industry (Pike and Page, 2014). Therefore, the hospitality industry has been on the run towards the improvement of generous reception approach, kindness, cordial consideration and warmth as offered to customers. The hospitable services provided in the hospitality industry align with the connection of other industries with the motives of enhancing services in the sector.

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Evolution of the Hospitality Industry

Evolution regarding hotel and tourism refers to a gradual development of the hospitality industry over the years to the present. The development of the hospitality industry can be traced back to the beginning of human civilization. There was an increased need for comfort attained through the provision of basic needs such as shelter, food, and fiber as clothes not merely to survive but for recreation and satisfaction. Traditionally, better treatment and quality services were only available to important people in highly regarded positions in society (Claveria, Monte and Torra, 2015). The practice of offering increasingly better quality services coupled with the increasing demand for those services gave rise the modern practices in the hospitality industry.

The development of the hospitality industry is multi-staged and influences by some factors including, trade, political factors, and war (Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic, 2015). Trade, is one major factor which was characterized by mass travels to seek goods from foreign lands. The business merchants needed accommodation facilities in the trading hubs to effectively carry out their trading activities. Secondly, high profile political figures needed accommodation while touring their territories thus necessitating the development of rental accommodation facilities. War and unrests witnessed in the past resulted in the mass exodus in the warzones constraining the development of temporary shelter and accommodation. All the above factors played a critical role in the development of the hospitality industry.

In the global perspective, the evolution of the hospitality industry underwent three significant generational periods. Each stage is characterized by phenomenal technological and regimental changes that spurred the growth of the hospitality industry. These periods are the period before the bourgeoisie and the aristocrats' society of the primitive age, the period after the industrial revolution and the period after the development of water, air and road transport. Each stage is explored below in details.

The first significant steps leading to modern hospitality practices are believed to have taken place during the period before bourgeoisie and aristocrats society. The first inns were established in the 6th century B.C. However, the traditional inns started to take shape in the 12th century (Dzhandzhugazova, Blinova, Orlova and Romanova, 2016). The Southern Italy inns of Pompeii are typical instances of the traditional inns that were taking the modern inn shape. Rome was considered pious by the Christian denominations affiliated to the Roman Empire, and such pilgrimage will pay homage to Rome. With occasional visits, the city established accommodation and recreational facilities for the visitors.

The concept of the small lodge house available at a fee was integrated into the hospitality practice. This was followed by the partial improvement of the small house lodges with goes back to the Middle Ages (Tsai, Dev, and Chintagunta, 2015). This period was characterized by intense social stratification of the British and the German societies and is believed to be the onset of the middle class, the low class, and the high-class societies. Often, the German and the British pieces of literature dated back to the Middle Ages frequently reference the inns and Taverns. The Italian inns and the chalets of Switzerland were the first forms of hotels frequently patronized by the aristocrat from the regions.

The second significant step in the development of the hospitality industry took shape after the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution of the 17th century led to significant developments in the transport industry enabling more mobility across territories (Bowie, 2018). This phenomenon led to the extension of the transport from being solely provided by government agencies to its incorporation in private businesses. Consequently, the hospitality also shifted to the private sector making it more lucrative as a business venture (Bowie, 2018). This practice was later adopted across all the European countries.

Finally, the third most significant period was after the development of air, road and sea transport. This period is marked by the development of modern automobiles and jet planes for commercial use. Due to the massive transport, hotels and recreational facilities were developed to respond to the needs of motorist giving birth to motels in the 1950s (Jones, Hillier & Comfort, 2016). This era was also characterized by catering and extravaganza hotels for tourists and commuters. Additionally, the skilled workforce was in high demand leading to integration in the curriculum system in the United States. With the technological invention of computing, the growth of the hospitality industry was further spurred. Consequently, a large chain of hotels has developed and merged to form international organizations including some renowned hotels including Meridian, Hilton, Hyatt, and Sheraton.

Development in the Hospitality Industry and Future Perspective

Historians have extended their research in the approaches of hospitality by the view of the connection of cultures and the lens of historical changes among human associations. According to Mottiar (2016), the view of the history of hospitality industry results into an array of expectations concerning how the industry deals with people from different societies. As the society changes, the hospitality industry keeps on developing concerning the new arrays of sociocultural issues (Mottiar, 2016). The leaders in the hospitality industry have been focusing on the need to allude to the ever-changing workforce approaches as a way of suiting the service industry with the cultural and social changes in society.

The hospitality industry is centred on the fact that dressing well, being cheerful and making the people one serves to feel warm and comfortable. Also, the development has extended to enhancing the service and warmth to the branches in the hospitality industry that includes restaurants, hotels and public relations (Pike and Page, 2014). Also, the service developments have been extended to park recreation, accommodation, entertainment and food services. It is even a requirement for the servants to be qualified personnel with accredited certificates and a given period of experience to offer a service in the hospitality industry.

The education sector has gone an extra mile in enhancing the hospitality industry by establishing a curriculum that supports the services offered in the industry with practical and theoretical approaches. Today, there are various education institutions offering lessons and certification for servants in the hospitality industry with the relevant courses that enable them to offer a substantive service with the inception of the connection between hospitality industry, the entertainment sector, tourism, recreation, and hotel management. The courses offered by various colleges and institutions are set to help students to become qualified airlines, cabin crew and flight crew. The hospitality industry has developed regarding the way they offer their service with caution, especially whenever there is an emergency. The hostesses are trained on the way to calm the passengers on board whenever there is an emergency at hand (Pike and Page, 2014). Comfortability and safety is the main goal of the hospitality industry in the current world of diverse cultures and societies.

The hospitality industry has enhanced its roles to and assigning if duties to the selling, serving and preparation service people (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko, 2016). Today, almost all hotels management require the applicants to at least be holders of a BA degree or MBA degree. The management of the hospitality industry requires a justifiable plan and situational leadership as a way of enhancing service provision.

There have been social and demographic trends in the hospitality industry that are related to consumer and society perception while promoting new opportunities in the tourism and catering industry (Zaitseva et al., 2016). The current competitive hospitality industry has led to the massive replacement of the aging population with massive changes in the demographic variables. The hospitality industry is now focused on employing young and energetic people in replacement of the aging population (Zaitseva et al., 2016). The industry is now focusing on various factors like beauty, the value of aesthetic and communication skills in the process of considering the applicants to the industry. The developing countries are comparatively focusing on the young population as the service people thus creating a challenge to the hospitality industry in the underdeveloped countries.

Kandampully, Zhang, and Bilgihan (2015) mentioned that customer loyalty is the driving force for development in the hospitality industry. There has been a development in the demographic considerations in the hospitality industry. Labour and planning have influenced workplace culture thus there have grown a need to enhance organizational, educational and training content of the servants in the tourism sector.

Hospitality sector has also enhanced service provision by providing travel plans for all the visitors. The sector also controls the pricing of services and products in the plight of developing local content. For instance, Ireland has enhanced the not-for-profit organization in partnering with other tourism personnel in developing regional products demands and sale (Vanhove, 2017). The enhancement in the hospitality industry in Ireland has made it possible for the not-for-profit organizations to enhance human resources of the region by offering a chance for all possible groups and service providers to get a chance of serving the tourists by the qualified destination organizers. According to Jones, Hillier, and Comfort (2016), the development is also associated with providing regional leadership, support, coordination, and help for sustainable and competitive regions for tourism as a way of attracting both local and international tourists. Hospitality industry through other organizations has engaged in the aspects that show that they are concerned with generating economic activities thus creating more jobs (Mottiar, 2016).

Hospitality development has gone further to suggest the best cities and refreshment centers that tourists can visit and get the best services and products. For instance, besides planning for the visitor's destinations around refreshment centers, Cork City Office proposes the possible beautiful towns to visit and potential targets to Dublin (Zaitseva et al., 2016). Cork City Tourism organizations ensure that th...