The hotel industry is any types or forms of business which relates to providing accommodations in lodging, food and beverage and a vast variety of services that are interrelated and organised which are intended for public service.
Hotels offer enormous range of guests’ services such as banqueting, conference and fitness, sport and facilities, beauty spas, bars, sophisticated restaurant and others. The hotel sector consists of more than 15% of all the people who worked in the hospitality sector. Hotels falls into a number of different categories which includes the glamorous five-star resort international luxury chains, trendy boutiques, country house, conference, leisure or guest houses. This very dynamic sector offers good quality accommodation, great variety of food and beverage, together with other services for all types of customers. The hotel sector is always striving to offer excellent customer service throughout its operations.
History of the Hotel Industry
The hospitality industry’s history can be traced back by the end of 1700s in the Colonial Period. This industry has been the subject of important development over the years as it has faced many obstacles such as the World Wars, the great depression, the industrial revolution and other social changes. However, the hotel industry as seen today in its modern concept took place in the 1950s and 60s.
The idea of renting an accommodation to visitors appeared since ancient times, and the modern concept of a hotel as we know started 1794, when the City Hotel opened in New York City; the City Hotel was claimed to be the first building designed exclusively to hotel operations. Other similar hotel operations follow the trend and appeared in other cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston in 1809.
The 1760s industrial revolution has much lead to the emerging of hotels everywhere, mainly in England, Europe and in America. The advent of new ways of transportations, hotels and resorts outside of major cities was built in the countryside and began promoting their scenery and other attractions. The concept of the vacation was developed and available to more and more of the population. In the 1920’s, the construction of hotel took a boom phase where many well-known hotels were opened. As from that period a flow of famous hotels flooded in America and the rest of the world with prominent brand such as Radisson, Marriot, Hilton and more others.
Organisations representing hotels worldwide
The Tourism industry worldwide has generated billions for recipient countries, making the tourism industry one of the most successful sectors in international trade in services. Often facing economically difficult times there has been the creation of several world organisations to monitor progress, promote and developed sustainable tourism in the hotel industry. The following are some of the world organisations representing the tourism and travel industry:
i) World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)
The (UNWTO) is one of the United Nations agencies, which is accountable for the advancement of responsible and sustainable tourism. Being the Word leading organization in the tourism sector, UNWTO promotes tourism as a mean for economic growth, development and environmental sustainability and offers the monitoring and assistance to the hotel sector in creating market knowledge and promotes competitive global tourism policies.
ii) International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IHRA)
The IHRA is an international association representing the welfares of hotel and restaurant industries. IH&RA main members are national hotel and restaurant associations which are located worldwide. Their main mission is the monitoring of international agencies in the tourism industry. It comprises of 300, 000 hotels and 8 million restaurants, this represents 60 million people who worked in the sector and raise more 950 billion USD yearly
iii) HSMAI – Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International
The HSMAI is the largest international association of travel sales and marketing professionals. The association have over 4, 000 members from different travel and tourism organisations including hotels, resorts, airlines, cruise lines and others in 31 countries worldwide, with the purpose of improving sales and marketing, education and management skills in the hospitality organisations worldwide.
iv) The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
The WTTC is a global authority which caters for the economic and social impact of Travel & Tourism. Its main aim is to support sustainable growth in the industry, while working in collaboration with different governments and international institutions to generate employments, to boost exports and to bring prosperity.
Growth of Hotel Industry Worldwide
The rise in levels of income and standard of living but also coupled with an increase in leisure time has been especially beneficial to the tourism industry. The advent of technological progress particularly through higher capacity cruise ships and aircrafts, computerized reservation systems, better road transport facilities have played key roles in the global growth of hotel industry. Moreover, improved productivity has been encouraging to the industry by aiding to reduce costs and making travel and tourism products more accessible and affordable.
As competition in the industry increases worldwide, the customers have reap great benefits in terms of lower prices coupled from a wider choice as the organizations have to differentiate their products from the crowd to attract niche market but also to struggle to enhance and improved the quality of their services. Implementing new strategies to marketing and promotion and innovative products are increasing the demand for destinations.
The governments as a facilitator, fund provider and legislator have also had played its part on the development of the industry. New consumer needs and attitudes have also driven the growth of specific segments, for instance new tourism concept such as medical tourism and ecotourism are booming. Moreover, the increased level of economic activity which has led to an upsurge in business travel and also the rising tendency of international movement.
In fact, even though there is the presence global economic challenges, the developments of hotels keep progressing, with additional innovative rooms being injected into global room supply by independent hotels and hotel chains.
Statistics
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, in 1950 the international tourist arrivals was at 25 million in 1950 is now set to surpass 1 billion by end of 2012, with an 1. 8 billion worldwide arrival by 2020.
In the beginning of 2012, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that global growth for the Travel & Tourism of 2. 7%, slightly downgraded from the 2. 8% than that was expected for the industry.
The trend for Travel & Tourism figures has been positive for the beginning of 2012 and has exceeded anticipations from the start of the year. Global tourist arrivals have progressed to 4. 9% in the year 2012 from January to June, whereas airline passenger traffic is up 6. 8%, and hotel occupancy rates are growing in most markets.
In the year 2011, the Travel & Tourism industries accounted for 255 million jobs globally generating 9 per cent of world GDP while generating billions for host economies; explaining why this industry plays a significant role in global investment and economic growth.
Statistics unveiled by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), in 2008 shows than an estimated 924 million worldwide tourist arrivals, shows an increase of 1. 76% compared to 2007. In 2009, international tourist arrivals experience a fall of 882 million, representing a worldwide drop of 4. 4% over 2008.
The world destinations witnesses a total of 600 million arrivals, and tourist arrivals in the whole world fell by 7% in the beginning of year 2009, but the trend have been rather been steady in recent months. These recent results and combined economic data, confirms UNWTO’s initial forecast a 5% fall in global tourist arrivals during the year 2009. Moreover, the global tourism in 2011 increases by 4. 4%, attaining $980 million international tourist arrivals. The estimation for 2012 according to the UNWTO expects a grow in the sector but at somewhat a lower rate, but allows to touch the reach of 1, 000 million international tourists by the end of 2012.
