Introduction
Scientific and technological progress, changes in social and ethical norms and innovations in business standards do not exhaust all the factors that significantly affect the national and international hospitality industry. Companies in this area are adapting to rapidly evolving market conditions, influenced by digitalization, sustainability standards, viral marketing and less apparent trends. According to Dzhandzhugazova et al. (2016), “innovations of all kinds are essential for both the viability and competitiveness of hotel enterprises” (p. 10387).
Consumer demands in the hospitality industry are subject to the same transformation as business supply, as some researchers note (Boella and Goss-Turner 2019; Legrand, Sloan and Chen 2016). This paper provides a critical analysis of tendencies and issues that affect the hospitality industry, evaluates the moral, legal and ethical dimensions of these issues and makes proposals and recommendations based on the research.
Tendencies and Issues Affecting Hospitality
The development of online marketing and the advent of information technologies have radically transformed the hospitality business all over the globe. Modern guests are given the opportunity to choose the services of any of the vast number of hospitality companies, and the number of advertising in the information field is exceedingly high. Researchers point out that viral marketing and promotion content in social media at the moment may even play an unforeseen role of demotivation of potential clients and tourists (Daif and Elsayed 2019).
At the same time, new digital trends and smart technology greatly facilitate the process of booking, check-in and customisation of in-room options for guests (Ristova and Dimitrov 2019). It may be stated that technological progress and the increasing role of digital communication, on the one hand, overload people with information and, on the other hand, provide many amenities.
Cultural and managerial trends of modern time also significantly affect the hospitality industry. Compliance with standards of responsibility and sustainability by hospitality market participants is considered one of the most crucial reputational factors. For instance, researchers note that “both major international hospitality companies and small businesses recognize that there are tangible benefits in being proactive in mitigating environmental impacts including real efficiency gains and an improved corporate reputation” (Legrand, Sloan and Chen 2016, p. 19).
Also, the significance of HR management in the hospitality sector has increased critically. The success of this business and the satisfaction of guests depends entirely on the performance of the staff. Therefore, large international companies, as well as local organizations operating in this field, spend considerable resources to organize professional labour market analysis, recruiting and training (Boella and Goss-Turner 2019). Thus, human and corporate responsibility factors contribute to the modification of modern management strategies of the hospitality market participants, which differ significantly from those in the industrial age, when the profit was the primary efficiency criterion.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that some tendencies of modern hospitality business are at first glance counterintuitive. Despite the globalization and digitalization of marketing and management processes and the increasing complexity of corporate administration, smaller and medium-sized family-owned firms still remain popular and in high demand. According to several researchers, this type of business even dominates this industry (Peters and Kallmunz 2018). Authors state that indicators of competitive aggressiveness and risk-taking attitude in this sector of the hospitality industry are low, but innovativeness and proactiveness are at a high level (Peters and Kallmuenzer 2018). Thus, given the high demand for economical apartments, family companies can seriously compete with big players at least on a local level.
Moral, Legal and Ethical Concerns
The use of online marketing and digitalization of hospitality business organizations is mostly unregulated in the legal field and causes few ethical and moral concerns. For instance, clients and guests should have the right to be forgotten both in online resources and corporate databases, as well as the right to refuse the mailing and advertising of a certain kind. This issue, however, is not specific to the hospitality industry and covers many spheres.
Despite the high standards of corporate responsibility and rapidly developing HR management industry, the problems of interaction between employees and clients, as well as working conditions in the hospitality business, remain urgent. Researchers note that due to social, economic and infrastructural reasons, the employees of hospitality companies are often representatives of vulnerable groups, including “female, young and minorities” (Ram 2018, p. 764).
Such circumstances often result in staff being negatively affected by administrators and customers. Disregarding junior workers is a centuries-old social norm and an echo of the notion that the client is always right, resulting in tolerant attitudes towards “violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality” (Ram 2018, p. 765).
Obviously, legal regulations prohibit such behaviours in relation to any individual. However, as a rule, its effect does not reach the problem sector of the hospitality industry due to the conventional acceptance of this phenomenon. At the same time, managers require pro-social behaviour and customer-oriented services from employees (Cheng and Chen 2017). Thus, external corporate responsibility and sustainability, as well as developed HR strategies, do not mitigate this challenge.
Proposals and Recommendations
It should be noted that based on the above analysis, two groups of recommendation can be proposed. The first concerns the introduction of modern innovations and following all emerging tendencies and developments in the hospitality business. Competitive promotion and strengthening of the market position without the use of social media and online marketing methods is almost impossible at present. Besides, compliance with corporate responsibility and sustainability standards improves business efficiency and leads to reputational benefits. These areas of hospitality industry development are actually the novelties of the 21st century, which require serious consideration.
The second group of recommendations is more specific and relates to a revision of the approach to HR strategies and the position of staff. Companies should ensure that they provide a safe environment and enhanced social protection for their employees. In addition, hospitality management should develop effective instruments for mediating conflicts between customers and junior staff. According to Torres, van Niekerk and Orlowski (2017), customer incivility results in “customer aggression, negative employee emotions, employee-to-customer incivility, employee-to-employee incivility and employee sensitivity to uncivil acts” (p. 49).
Such conditions directly threaten business success, as they can have a straightforward negative impact on the satisfaction of both clients and staff. Thus, by protecting vulnerable groups of employees and allocating additional resources to the development of new HR methods that would address this challenge, hospitality companies would receive additional benefits.
Conclusion
It should be noted that technological progress, popularization of digital communication and new social and managerial trends have greatly influenced the hospitality industry. At the same time, some challenges that have a long history and are directly related to the HR sphere are still relevant and require resolution. It should be concluded that despite the emergence of issues and tendencies that significantly modify the hospitality sector, some problems remain unaffected by these innovations and require special consideration.
Reference List
Boella, M. J. and Goss-Turner, S. (2019) Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A guide to best practice. London: Routledge.
Cheng, J. C. and Chen, C. Y. (2017) ‘Job resourcefulness, work engagement and prosocial service behaviors in the hospitality industry’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(10), pp. 2668-2687.
Daif, R. and Elsayed, K. (2019) ‘Viral marketing impact on tourism and hospitality industry’, International Journal of Research in Tourism and Hospitality (IJRTH), 5(3), pp. 34-41.
Dzhandzhapanyan, E. A. et al. (2016) ‘Innovations in hospitality industry’, International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(17), pp. 10387-10400.
Legrand, W., Sloan, P. and Chen, J. S. (2016) Sustainability in the hospitality industry: principles of sustainable operations. London: Routledge.
Peters, M. and Kallmuenzer, A. (2018) ‘Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: The case of the hospitality industry’, Current Issues in Tourism, 21(1), pp. 21-40.
Ram, Y. (2018) ‘Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry’, Current Issues in Tourism, 21(7), pp. 760-774.
Ristova, C. and Dimitrov, N. (2019) ‘Digitalisation in the hospitality industry-trends that might shape the next stay of guests’, International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 11(3), pp. 144-154.
Torres, E. N., van Niekerk, M. and Orlowski, M. (2017) ‘Customer and employee incivility and its causal effects in the hospitality industry’, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 26(1), pp. 48-66.