Careers in the hospitality industry

From the renaissance era to modern era of 21^st century the inception of the hospitality concept surfaced and became a commercial endeavor. Now it’s not limited to just a room and board, the industry has morphed into a multitrillion dollar global enterprise.

 The hospitality industry encompasses primarily of lodging, food service, and travel and tourism sector. The lodging segment includes hotels, motels, casinos, resorts, bed and breakfast operations. The food service operations consists of quick service restaurants, institutional food service operations, full-service restaurants, lodging food service just to name a few. The travel and tourism sector includes airlines, cruise lines, tour operations, and tourist bureaus. Other areas of the hospitality industry include event venues, conference and convention centers, consulting firms, and clubs.

Before intruding into industry one need to be clear about industry, its work culture and most important about one’s own personality that will he/she be able to cope up with things?

• Are you ready to take the plunge in the hospitality industry?
• Do you have a vibrant, outgoing, and upbeat personality?
• Do you have the drive and energy to persevere?
• Are you a leader?
• Are you a team player?

Do you feel a sense of fulfillment when extending a helping hand to others?

Do you enjoy meeting people from different walks of life?

Do you love to travel?

Do you acclimatize well to change?

There are some of the necessary personality traits, skills, and qualities to thrive in this line of work. No two days are alike in the hospitality industry; each day brings an array of challenges. Hospitality employees strive to anticipate customer needs, exceed expectations, and pursue excellence. These service qualities are vital for hospitality professionals to exude in the field.

·        There are numerous career choices in the hospitality industry. Typically, entry level positions are procured in operations. A lodging sector entry level position may be attained in front office or food and beverage operations. These positions are also available in other areas such as sales and marketing, sales and catering, finance and accounting, or human resource departments.

·   Middle management opportunities in the lodging and food service sector include executive positions, and typically are titled Assistant Manager or Supervisor.

·        In recent years, there is a growing demand for nouveau careers within the industry; titles such as revenue managers, asset managers, real estate developers, sustainability managers, event planners, search engine optimization and social media specialists are on the rise. 

·        Climbing up the career ladder from middle management to upper management positions means attaining a job title, namely, a Director, General Manager, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President or even President. These positions require a number of years of work experience. Planning, coordinating, communicating, and directing, controlling and decision making are management skills expected of most middle and senior managers.

So, hospitality sector opens a wide range of job opportunities from graduates to post graduates, from fresher’s to experienced in this perennial industry.

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TOURISM: Indian Scenario

The other attractions include beautiful beaches, forests and wild life and landscapes for eco-tourism; snow, river and mountain peaks for adventure tourism; technological parks and science museums for science tourism; Centers of pilgrimage for spiritual tourism; heritage, trains and hotels for heritage tourism. Yoga, Ayurveda and natural health resorts and hill stations also attract tourists.

The Indian handicrafts particularly, Jewels, carpets, leather goods, ivory and brass work are the main shopping items of foreign tourists. It is estimated through survey that nearly forty per cent of the tourist expenditure on shopping is spent on such items.

Despite the economic slowdown, medical tourism in India is the fastest growing segment of tourism industry, according to the market research report “Booming Medical Tourism in India”. The report adds that India offers a great potential in the medical tourism industry. Factors such as low cost, scale and range of treatments provided in the country add to its attractiveness as a medical tourism destination.

Initiatives to Boost Tourism: Some of the recent initiatives taken by the Government to boost tourism include grant of export house status to the tourism sector and incentives for promoting private investment in the form of Income Tax exemptions, interest subsidy and reduced import duty. The hotel and tourism-related industry has been declared a high priority industry for foreign investment which entails automatic approval of direct investment up to 51 per cent of foreign equity and allowing 100 per cent non-resident Indian investment and simplifying rules regarding the grant of approval to travel agents, tour operators and tourist transport operators.

 Future Prospects: According to the latest Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) research, released by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and its strategic partner Oxford Economics in March 2009:

•The demand for travel and tourism in India is expected to grow by 8.2 per cent between 2010 and 2019 and will place India at the third position in the world.

•India's travel and tourism sector is expected to be the second largest employer in the world, employing 40,037,000 by 2019.

•Capital investment in India's travel and tourism sector is expected to grow at 8.8 per cent between 2010 and 2019.

•The report forecasts India to get capital investment worth US$ 94.5 billion in the travel and tourism sector in 2019.

•India is projected to become the fifth fastest growing business travel destination from 2010-2019 with an estimated real growth rate of 7.6 per cent.

The major constraint in the development of tourism in India is the non-availability of adequate infrastructure including adequate air seat capacity, accessibility to tourist destinations, accommodation and trained manpower in sufficient number.

Poor visitor experience, particularly, due to inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor hygienic conditions and incidents of touting and harassment of tourists in some places are factors that contribute to poor visitor experience.

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Travel and Tourism Scenario

Tourism is a global industry that has played a dominant role in the development of many destinations and communities around the world building and transforming their economies from long time low to a new height. In order to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry in their destination and tourism development, it drew upon free and abundantly available natural, historical, social and cultural resources.

Tourism can provide tremendous economic and employment opportunities in the developing nations. Another challenge faced by the developing nations is unemployment (not only of the uneducated but also of the educated youth). Tourism seems to be ideally suited for absorbing vast human resource potential that we have in our country. From airports to hotels, artifacts to handicrafts, transport to entertainment tourism industry is capable of providing numerous employment opportunities due to multiplier effect.

Why tourism Matters

International tourist arrivals reached 1,138 million in 2014, a 4.7% increase over the previous year, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. For 2015, UNWTO forecasts international tourism to grow by 3% to 4%, further contributing to the global economic recovery.

The number of international tourists (overnight visitors) reached 1,138 million in 2014, 51 million more than in 2013. With an increase of 4.7%, this is the fifth consecutive year of above average growth since the 2009 economic crisis. Travel & Tourism’s direct contribution to world gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in 2014 was US$2.4 trillion (2014 prices) and 105 million jobs respectively and Asia has remained the key growth driver for the world outbound travel market once more this year with a growth rate of 8% in the first eight months. Moreover for 2015 Asia is expected to outpace the rest of the globe again with 8% growth in outbound trips, the World Travel Monitor Forum in Pisa heard.

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Travel And Tourism Management In India

In India, tourism is  growing at a great pace  in a significant manner, some key areas of concern which need focus is: infrastructure, promotion and marketing at domestic and international levels, skill training and  development, tourism  education, professionalisation of services management, service man skill enhancement .Apart from  challenges of the red corridor, tourism also generates a new source of livelihood, jobs, growth of remote areas, preservation of  culture, enterprise development at the basic level and sustainable environment management.
Potential for the travel and tourism industry in India is enormous. However, at the same time, the industry faces most critical challenge is lack of proper infrastructure.

Issues in domestic travel and tourism industry in India are poor infrastructure,Human resources,poor Service levels,Lack of adequate marketing and promotion,Security and Regulatory issues.

Management

The promotion  and advertising strategies accompanied with  aggressive marketing measures undertaken by the government is aiding influx of tourists. The industry would also benefit from  new forms of tourism and development of niche segments.

Various opportunities are there in ecotourism, adventure tourism, and cruise tourism. Eco-tourism is leading in the development of eco-friendly hotels and tour packages. With increased environment awareness among tourists and laws undertaken by the government and private players, the ecotourism segment is expected to record  growth in the future.

There is immense potential in adventure tourism  and cruise tourism. India’s greatest adventure tourism highlights are Himalayas and its mighty rivers. The irony is that the peak period for adventure tourism is the “lean period” of cultural tourism. Development of adventure tourism  and culture tourism can make India a round-the-year tourist destination. The cruise industry is one of the most revenue generating industries in India yet strong efforts need to be made to develop this industry. Other forms of tourism such as agri tourism, pilgrimage tourism, heritage tourism, and MICE tourism can also be developed for better management of travel and tourism industry.

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Trends of Health & Wellness Tourism

Health and wellness tourism is now an international trend set by the health conscious consumers seeking to enhance their well being through their travel experiences. This type of consumer seeks to look and feel better, to lose weight, to slow the effects of aging, to relieve pain or discomfort, to manage stress, or to partake in the use of natural supplements like vitamins and minerals to improve and enhance their health.

Resorts and hotels are joining the health spa development craze, although only some resorts are moving into the scope of services currently offered by destination spas. A distinction is made between the health and the wellness aspects.Health tourism refers to those clients with medical conditions who would travel to experience healing therapies. A person who seeks a wellness travel experience, is generally healthy to start with, and seeks therapies to maintain thewell being.

The spa industry segment is regarded as the leading player in health and wellness tourism. In searching for health and wellness travel experiences, travelers can find structured and professionally-delivered programsat several types of spa venues. These include:

Mineral Springs Spa: A spa offering on-site natural mineral, thermal, or sea water, which is used in professionally administered hydrotherapy treatments. This spa typifies the European spa product offering focusing on health and wellness.

Resort/Hotel Spa: This category represents the second largest group of spa facilities in North America. The majority have been or are being developed where the spa is a profitable amenity added to traditional resort vacation opportunities.

In India, with its pool of highly trained and specialised doctors, good healthcare infrastructure facilities, relatively lower cost of treatment and availability of alternative forms of treatment such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Siddha, and Naturopathy is seeing strong growth in health  tourism.

Wellness tourism

Wellness tourism is regarded as a sub-segment of health tourism.  The primary purpose is achieving, promoting or maintaining good health and a sense of well-being. India with widespread presence of Ayurveda, Yoga, Siddha, and Naturopathy, complemented by its spiritual philosophy, is a well-known wellness destination. Wellness tourism includes ayurvedic therapies, spa visits, and yoga meditation. 

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