Internationalization and Financial Health in the US Hotel Industry focuses on the trend towards the internalization of the American hotel industry (Seoki & Yoon, 2014). The article highlights two major theories with respect to the internationalization of the hotels from the late 20th century to the present (Seoki & Yoon, 2014). According to the author, international American hotels are economically better compared to local American hotels. In the mid of the article, the author evaluates the second theory.
The theory asserts that international US hotels experience a number of financial problems when they try to venture into foreign markets. As such, the article attributes the challenges to the unknown factors in the foreign markets. To overcome these challenges, the article offers some recommendations (Seoki & Yoon, 2014). The author suggests that by adopting internationalization strategies, the hotels will gain more benefits as they expand. The strategy’s benefits outweigh the cost of internalization. Therefore, the implementation of the strategy will result in a U-shaped relationship.
After reading the article, I noted that a number of international hotels had conquered numerous challenges over the last two decades in their bid to break into foreign markets. Through the article, I recognized that financial challenges are the major issues faced by the hotels (Seoki & Yoon, 2014). I believe that if international hotels implement the strategy proposed in the article, the challenges would be addressed. In this regard, I recommend that the article be read by the hotels wishing to expand into the foreign market.
Hospitality 2015: Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Trends appraise the relationship between the travel industry and the hotel and management industry (Deloitte, 2014). The article indicates that in the emerging markets such as India and China, the travel industry will play a huge role in the growth of the hotel and restaurant industry. For instance, the article claims that successful western hotel and restaurant companies in the foreign markets owe their success to joint ventures between them and travel agencies (Deloitte, 2014). The article points out that when evaluating the relationship between travel and the industry, researchers should focus on the travelers’ needs and priorities. For instance, the author notes that Chinese travelers’ dietary needs are dissimilar from American travelers’ dietary needs (Deloitte, 2014).
By doing so, the article encourages international hotels and restaurants to introduce diverse delicacies in their menus to attract diverse travelers. Similarly, the article offers an understanding of the major factors that have affected the travel and hospitality industries in the last few years.
In my view, the above article is very useful for stakeholders who want to appraise the relationship between the hospitality industry and the travel industry. From the article, I noted that international hotels and restaurants could enhance their earnings by liaising with travel agencies. Similarly, I noted that the growth of the travel industry has direct benefits to the hospitality industry. I believe that with improved global traveling services, more individuals would be willing to travel around the world. Because of this, the hotel and the restaurant industry will be promoted since they have to offer essential services to travelers. Equally, from the article, I learned that there are a number of factors affecting the growth of the travel and the hospitality industries. Based on this, I believe that the two industries should collaborate to tackle these challenges with ease.
Strategic Diversity Management Initiatives evaluates the challenges of diverse cultural norms in the hospitality industry (Besler & Sezerel, 2014). The article asserts that technological advancements have allowed individuals with different cultures and from different environments to work together in the hospitality industries. The author notes that the experiences have been exciting and frustrating to some (Besler & Sezerel, 2014). Some individuals find it hard to adjust to both institutional and national cultural differences leading to a drop in their performances. Cultural values have an impact on a range of features in the hospitality industry (Besler & Sezerel, 2014).
According to the article, values and behaviors are specific to national cultures and are never universal. Thus, each worker in the hospitality industry behaves based on his or her values and beliefs. The differences in cultures and, consequently, behaviors have resulted in many challenges in a diverse workforce in international hotels. The article asserts that hotel managers should learn how to tackle the challenges with ease for effective productivity.
With regard to the above article, I noted that it is essential for researchers to investigate hotel management based on cultural context. I believe that if the international hotel and restaurant employees understand and appreciate their cultural differences, they would be in a better position to tackle challenges associated with cultural diversity in the workplace. Similarly, I believe that as the article asserts, culture affects leadership in various ways. For hotels or restaurants with several departments, managers should encourage departmental leaders to embrace diversity. From the article, I also learned that in the past, effective cross-cultural training for hotel managers had been a challenging task demonstrating the need to adopt and understand automatic and schema-based components of perceptions and behaviors specific to a particular region.
References
Besler, S., & Sezerel, H. (2014). Strategic Diversity Management Initiatives: A Descriptive Study. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58(1), 624-633. Web.
Deloitte (2014). Hospitality 2015: Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Trends. Web.
Seoki, L., & Yoon, K. (2014). Internationalization and financial health in the US hotel industry. Tourism Economics, 20(1), 87-105. Web.