Sustainable Hospitality Management Research Paper

Abstract

Hospitality Management and Sustainable Hospitality Management-its concepts, applications and ethical and environmental issues concerning it are very important issues to explore and study. Hospitality management needs special attention and care due to its sensitiveness. The paper will clear some concepts of Hospitality Management and Sustainable Hospitality Management, Assessment of Operational Efficiency of Hospitality Organizations, Critical analysis of Hospitality Parameters, Critical evaluation of Principles and Procedures Involved in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, Principle Concepts Underpinning Ethical Management Issues, Factors Affecting the Decision Making Process for Hospitable Organizations, Combating the Challenges of the New Era, Sustainable Development-Critiques

Hospitality Management

Hospitality management is a field which encompasses the managerial activities involved in running restaurants, hotels, and the tourism business. Hospitality and Tourism Management is a vast and popular field in today’s world, which has now evolved as a global village. There is so much interaction between countries, and distances have shortened between the continents, which makes it all the more popular to go visit other countries, in order to observe diverse places and cultures. Social interaction is the only way people of different cultures can come closer, by means of interpersonal communication. It is essential for communities to explore this field, and now many institutions are prevalent internationally, which offer educational degrees and certifications in Hospitality and Tourism Management. These degrees may enable individuals to excel in the fields that encounter hospitality, like running casinos, resorts, hotels, and in becoming restaurateurs.

“Two broad-based think tanks, sponsored by the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), examined the future of information technology in the hospitality industry. A chief theme emerging from the think tanks is that the successful hospitality purveyor of the future will be the one that can use technology to meet the customer’s needs on the customer’s terms. That means supplying disparate information relating to the customer’s travel desires and being able to do so instantaneously—whenever the guest decides to make the inquiry. While hospitality firms will not be able to count on blind loyalty, they will be able to use technology to learn enough about their customers to continually meet their changing needs and desires. Since customers will be able to find nearly any kind of information via the internet, intermediaries will need to develop ways of packaging information to make it more valuable to customers. Likewise, destination-based companies will have to assemble a portfolio of potential experiences and match those to the experiences desired by a customer. All of this will require not only technology, but excellently trained employees who know how to use the technology to add value to the customer’s travel experience. Lacking that value-added feature, hospitality purveyors risk being relegated to commodity providers competing only on price-a gloomy scenario that can be avoided with judicious application of information systems.” (Olsen & Connolly, 2000)

Sustainable Hospitality Management

Sustainable hospitality management is linked to managerial matters in the hospitality industry. This may include issues relating to the revenues expended, the social environment prevalent, or even the accommodation and services provided. Tourists have a direct link with the travel agencies, and the hotel administrations which they are to deal with directly upon arrival to another place. This is an opportunity for those who wish to invest in the hospitality trade, through cultural and economic interest. There are certain goals that need to be attained in order to achieve sustainability in hospitality management, although many challenges come along the way. The goals are as follows:

• Development of team enthusiasm
• Evaluating the structural framework of the sustainable hospitality business.
• Evaluate the performance and develop strategies for sustainable hospitality management (United Nations Division for sustainable development 2005, p. 1).

The sustainable hospitality management is responsible for the upgrading of those individuals who are interested in dealing with customers and willing to get into communicating with others. They have to have a high level of politeness in their nature and have to be quick in response to others, as well as be extremely efficient to benefit the business. In the United States, the tourism industry holds immense importance, and contributes to 25% of employment to the masses. The rise of traditional tourism has taken a toll, with subdivisions into cultural tourism, sports, and sight-seeing of adventurous spots.

Today’s youth is anxious to extend careers in the hospitality field, and have a variety of courses to choose from, for their development in the tourism industry. There are many organizations and schools on the international level that offer such subjects that pertain to the hospitality industry. The areas of study available for interested individuals include:

1. Hospitality management
2. Hotel and catering management
3. International hospitality management
4. Tourism management
5. Travel and tourism
6. Tourism marketing
7. Heritage management.

Researchers should be able to evaluate the areas in which there is a need to come up with valuable projects which would assist in setting up new theories. These new theories would help solve major ethical issues that exist in macro and micro business set ups.

“Segmentation by demographic variables is by far the most widely used method of segmentation. Factors such as age, income, stage of life, and gender have all been used to segment markets. One factor that has been gaining attention over the past decade is groups of individuals born during the same time period who experience similar “epochal” events better known as cohorts. This paper reviews and assesses the literature on cohorts and uses a case study to demonstrate one “type” of cohort analysis within a tourism context. Data are based on 2 Canadian surveys conducted among 11 500 respondents in 1983 and 3356 respondents in 1995. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of cohort analysis are explained and future research recommended.” (Pennington-Gray, Fridgen & Stynes, )

There has been a lot of development in hospitable institutions over the past few years. Travel once became cheaper, which had provided more of an opportunity for people to travel to more parts of the world. International conferences took place more frequently in those days, also helped cutting down distances between nations, and allowed for provision of greater profit to the tourism industry. However, the current situation is not the same. Due to the economic crunch that the world has been facing, being a global village, each nation has been affected negatively in every aspect, including the tourist industries, which declined because of the conflicting issues raised between nations.

Business expectations/revenue

• The revenue of privately held businesses in the tourism industry has lessened as compared to 2007. Earlier it was recorded to be above 78%, whereas currently it is just above 75%.
• Levels of optimism relate to the profitability attained.
• Levels of optimism are very high, compared to profitability.

IT will help boost hospitality business by providing customers with all required information via computer technology. Customer can retrieve all information related to hotels from their home office computers and find out best hotels along their journey and make bookings online. Hospitality industry must find out barriers for the implementation of technology and come up with solutions to tackle this problem.

“Information technology can provide hospitality firms with a sustained competitive advantage, provided the technology complements operations. Based on interdisciplinary research findings with regard to the sustainability of IT-enabled competitive advantage, this article provides a framework that can help both hospitality scholars and managers formally analyze existing and proposed IT-dependent strategic initiatives. The chief element in achieving a competitive advantage is to identify the drivers of response lag, which is the time it takes for competitors to imitate an IT initiative—if they are able to do so. The drivers can be grouped into one of the following four barriers to erosion of competitive advantage: (1) IT-resources barrier, (2) complementary-resources barrier, (3) IT-project barrier, and (4) preemption barrier.” (Piccoli, 2008)

Employment

In the year 2007, the growth of employment in the hospitality sector was much lesser, i.e. +32% than the expectations that were made, i.e. +49%. It has always been a test to gain a balance between short and long term needs and requirements of stakeholders. The rules of sustainability in hospitality progression have been much talked over, and their use has been controversial.

“Although significant increases in travel information search behavior were found across all cohorts between the two periods, the study also found that older baby boomer cohorts reported greater increases in the likelihood of travel information search behavior than Generation Xers at large. This empirically validates the notion that boomers adopted the Internet earlier than traditionally assumed. The study provides explanatory detail using a synthesis of literature across the areas of technology adoption theory, e-commerce, and sociology. The findings provide an evolutionary perspective of online travel information search behavior among and within generational cohorts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.” (Beldona, 2005)

Sustainability and operational, tactical and strategic measures

There have been many attempts to sustain a certain level of hospitality in the tourism industry world over. For this, minimal standards have been set, which are meant to be followed by the tourism sectors. Many of them affirm their responsibility to withhold the standards that have been given, into their systems. Nevertheless, there are still some corporates who wish to refrain from implementation of hospitality sustainability, by not accepting some environmental limitations set on their hotels and restaurants. These entrepreneurs include the UN-WTO’s European section of hospitality.

Environmental Management and Sustainable Development

Sustainable hospitality is developed in a way in which the environment is conserved. The needs and requirements of individuals are met in a way in which the environment is not in any way affected or destructed, as well as the aims of the developmental process are met. These needs are not only the short term needs, but also include needs of future upcoming generations. Sustainable development helps underdeveloped or developing countries adopt changes in the environment according to the industrialization process, without having to follow the countries which emit toxins into the environment.

Global sustainability has been widely accepted by leaders of the world. The World Summit on Sustainable Development has declared that the first few years of the new century would lay emphasis on humanistic needs and wants, in relation to the biosphere. The notion of sustainability can be dated back to the 60’s and 70’s, when the United Nations Conferences were held, and such matters were discussed.

The whole idea of hospitality sustainability revolves around three aspects, which are, the economy, the environment, and social sustainability (society). Concentric circles showing these three elements of significance can be seen illustrated.

According to one report Generation X has now exceed baby boomers in traveling expenses. Generation X were spending $2140 per capita while baby boomers $2016 in 2004. However, in last decades boomers were spending more than Generation X.

“Last year, Xers — the 60 million Americans from age 25 to 40 — spent an estimated $2,140 per capita on overall travel involving a hotel stay, vs. boomers’ $2,016, according to a preliminary estimate from travel researcher D.K. Shifflet & Associates. The larger boomer population still dominates on a total dollar basis — about $157 billion last year, vs. $130 billion for Xers. Vacation spending by Xers has soared 66% per trip in the past five years, vs. 25% among boomers, ages 41 to 59. “These younger people are enjoying life,” says Jim Caldwell of Shifflet. The generational change has significant implications for the travel industry. Compared with the 78 million boomers, Gen Xers are less brand loyal, less likely to call a travel agent and less likely to plan far in advance. They’re more likely to book online and pay for eye-catching extras, such as a Sierra Madre expedition in the Mexican outback.” (De Lollis, 2005)

Environmental Stability

Environmental stability is the method in which actions are executed keeping in mind the environment, making sure that the surroundings are not damaged in any way. Unsustainability occurs when the total number of allotted resources is used at a faster rate than they can be replaced. Humans are supposed to use the resources according to their rate of production, and not exceed the rate at which these resources can be replaced with new ones. Great stress has been laid on conservation of the environment because once the environmental life has been damaged, it would be very difficult to keep human life hale and hearty.

The following table shows the condition of sustainable environment according to different renewable natural resources:

The Environment Issues Regarding the Hospitality Industry

Hotels play a pivotal role in environmental sustenance. The energy they consume, along with other factors such as water, usage of chemicals, purchasing materials, etc. all are linked to humans and the environment. All these areas of concern need to be given attention in order to make the hotel businesses work in an environmental friendly manner.

The water usage in hotels is in abundance, because of the great numbers of people there for consumption. Also, water is an integral part in the swimming pools and golf courses, which is indirectly a waste.

List of References

Beldona, S. (2005). Cohort analysis of online travel information search behavior: 1995-2000. Journal of Travel Research, 44, 135-142.

De Lollis, B. (Feb, 2005). Travel world tries catering to Gen X splurgers. USA Today, 01b.

Olsen, M. D. & Connolly, D. J. (2000). Experience-based travel. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 41(1), 30.

Pennington-Gray, L. (2003). Cohort segmentation: An application to tourism. Leisure Sciences, 25, 341-361.

Piccoli, G. (2008). Information technology in hotel management: A framework for evaluating the sustainabilityof IT-dependent competitive advantage. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 29(5), 226-296.

United Nations Division for sustainable development 2005, Indicators of sustainable development. Expert group meeting, New York.