With increased global economic and social integration, the hospitality industry has not been left out. The hospitality industry is characterized by offering of services to visitors who majorly constitute the people from other countries apart from the host country. The Hospitality Industry therefore is by nature a global industry, offering its services in various nations of the world. Globalization has influenced the Hospitality Industry both negatively and positively. In this essay we look into the influence of globalization on the hospitality industry, both negatively and positively. The paper will also discuss the challenges facing the hospitality industry.
Globalization exposes the hospitality industry to a variety of cultures. When people from different backgrounds and cultures interact, they exchange and diversify their cultures. The managers to the hospitality industry are in position to get more information about different cultures adding up to their knowledge. The managers apply the knowledge gained to improve the industry and hence increased productivity.
Globalization creates a larger market for the hospitality industry. Once a business begins to offer hospitality services beyond its borders, the customer base expands significantly. As more people travel around the world, they do so not only for vacation but also business, political meeting among other reasons. The people have expanded the market for the industry which largely depends on visitors from abroad. The expanded market will lead to high productivity for the hospitality industry.
Technology improvements in the hospitality industry are attributed to the globalization. Entry into the global market means more hospitality organizations that pose stiff competition. To ensure productivity in such a competitive market, firms have to upgrade their services by improving on technology. For instance, the hospitality industry of Singapore introduced Singapore Flyer, a new technology that is quick meeting the demands of the customers globally. This promoted greatly the hospitality industry in the country. It also promotes creativity as the industry has to find out new innovations and inventions in an attempt to attract more tourists. They have to create products and services tailored to meet the demands of their customers.
Globalization contributes positively to the economy. As visitors tour a country they spend money and directly impact on the multiplier due to increment in foreign exchange. These exchanges of the foreign currency help to bring money into the economy. More jobs are created and the unemployment rates go down. With globalization, more visitors flow pushing the hospitality industry to employ more employees to serve the increased number of the visitors. With diversification of globalization, more jobs will be created in the hospitality industry. The transport industry also benefits from globalization. The visitors have to travel from one place to another by either means of land, water or air. Through travelling they boost the transport industry and hence larger economy.
Globalization causes diversification of the international services and therefore development of the hospitality industry. Since there exist a variety of visitors with different cultures, languages as well as customs, the industry has to involve a variety of recipes to cater for the needs of the foreigners hence extending it to the locals. This improves on the hospitality services.
On the other hand, globalization impacts negatively on the hospitality industry. Globalization means improvements or advancements in technology. Developing countries are characterized with low advancements in technology. Globalization therefore has a negative impact on their on their hospitality industry as they are likely to experience low numbers of visitors even if there are natural attractions. These countries have to borrow funds to use in improving the industries or risk losing customers. As they do so, they increase the public debt for such countries, a burden for future generations and the economy as a whole.
Language and cultural barriers arise from globalization into the hospitality industry. Employees may not have knowledge of the languages used by their visitors creating a barrier for passing information across. The visitors may be annoyed and may not wish to return to the place again. The number of visitors is reduced and with the trend continuing, they are likely to lose a good amount of foreign customers who contribute to over 70 percents of the total visitors. With various cultures, employees have to remain extremely careful since some people get irritated easily for instance when dealing with Muslims who do not consume pork, it may sound disrespectful for an innocent employee who offers them with pork.
Occurrence of events in one nation can affect the hospitality industry of another country due to dependency co existences between the nations. Take an example of if a natural disaster takes place in one nation, visitors are likely to reduce in another dependent nation that experience low visitors and hence reduction in the amount of revenue in the hospitality industry. Different countries have different, season patterns such that they only visit certain countries at certain periods. Since the foreign visitors are main the source of revenue, seasonal employment comes into play. “Goa – India; the locals in Goa get their income only during the peak season, (Dec- Feb and April – July) after which they have no jobs and no income” (www.theinernationaljounal.org).
Globalization necessitates the use of technology such as internet eliminating the personal human contact. The rate of crime as a result of the use of internet increases. The youth are impacted negatively with socially unwanted materials availed by the constant use of the internet leading to undesired habits such as promiscuity.
Challenges facing the hospitality organizations
One of the challenges facing hospitality organizations is the demanding customers. “A huge generational shift is taking place in today’s guest community: as the Baby Boomers retire, their successors are bringing new expectations concerning Technology. In particular, anyone born since 1980 has enjoyed a life-long association with real-time (“instant”) communications. They want it now – and they want it right first time.” (Bratton, 2011). The changes in demand for their customers’ demands are a real challenge for most of the hospitality organizations that find it challenging to shift. This is has posed real challenge and bottleneck for further development.
Guest profiling is another challenge facing the hospitality organizations. According to Bratton (2011); “the objective of any Hotel in the pursuit of Guest Service Excellence should be – Learn more about our guests by gathering and mining Data.” Gathering of data has become real a challenge as visitors keep on changing from time to time.
In conclusion, globalization both negative and positive impacts on the hospitality industry. However, the positive impacts are more felt. Despite the challenges they face, hospitality organizations should adopt globalization.
References
Bratton, J. (2011). Globalization of the Hospitality industry. Consortium Journal, 13(2).
HOW GLOBALISATION INFLUENCE THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY | shrivastava | TIJ's Research Journal of Commerce & Behavioural Science - RJCBS. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2013, from http://www.theinternationaljournal.org/ojs/index.php?journal=rjcbs&page=article&op=view&path[]=608&path[]=265
