Contemporary Hospitality Industry: Types of Businesses, Departments, and Economic Worth

This report delves into the contemporary hospitality industry, covering the different types of businesses and departments within it, their interrelationships, and the economic worth of the industry. It also explores the impact of franchising and licensing agreements on the industry's growth and profitability. The report focuses on Crowne Plaza, a multinational chain of full-service hotels, to provide examples and insights.

Unit 1 The Contemporary
Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Different types of business within Hospitality Industry and diverse products and services they
offer.............................................................................................................................................3
Contribution of hospitality industry to local, national and international economies..................4
Range of Operational and Functional departments within Crowne Plaza..................................5
Interrelationships of operational and functional units within Crowne Plaza..............................7
How use of Franchising and licensing agreements has influenced the global development of
Hospitality Industry.....................................................................................................................7
Analyse how global growth, franchising and licensing developments have contributed to the
economic worth of Hospitality Industry.....................................................................................8
Investigate the range of different operational roles within Hospitality Industry........................8
Examines the skills required for roles within Hospitality Industry and current skills shortage. 9
Review the skill gaps within Hospitality Industry in relation to different operational roles....10
Impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and make valid solutions for addressing
these skill gaps..........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is a service industry which includes hotels, amusement parks,
restaurant, casinos, entertainment, events and other tourism related services. The main motive of
hospitality industry is to generate revenue for local economies. The revenue is generated when
tourist spend money in restaurant, entertainment venues and hotels. Few components of
hospitality industry are event management and assembly, managed services and restaurant, travel
and lodging (Afsar, Shahjehan and Shah, 2018). Hospitality industry includes friendly and
generous treatment of visitors and customer. Objective of this sector is to offer excellent
customer service, improve ratings and deliver best quality of products and services to its
customer. The report is based on contemporary hospitality industry in which the different types
of business within hospitality industry and diverse products and services they offer are
determined. It also covers the contribution of hospitality industry to local, national and
international economies. The project also determines the range of operational and functional
departments and their interrelationship within hospitality business, range of different operational
roles and their skills. For completing this report, the chosen hospitality business is Crowne Plaza,
it is a multinational chain of full service which caters to business travelers, convention market
and meetings. The hotel was established in 1983 as a name of Holiday inn Crowne Plaza but
later in 1994 it was renamed as Crone Plaza Hotels.
Different types of business within Hospitality Industry and diverse products and services they
offer
Hospitality industry mainly offer wide range of products and services to its customer by
focusing on diversifying customer satisfaction to their best level. The industry includes several
types of businesses that offer different range of products and services to its customer. Few
businesses in hospitality industry are lodging, food and beverages, recreation, entertainment,
travel, tourism, health and sports, etc.
Accommodation:
Accommodation is one of the type of business within hospitality industry, it is a broad
sector which provides a place for the people to live, stay and sleep. The main role of
accommodation business is to offer safety to customer as they are unaware with new places (Yao
and et. al., 2019). Crowne Plaza hotel also provide accommodation services to its customers so

that they can explore their desired city. By offering accommodation facility, Crowne Plaza
improves the overall experience of travelling.
Travel and Tourism:
Travel and Tourism is other type of business in hospitality industry, it encourages people
to travel so that they spend money on hospitality (Cheng and Tung, 2021). This type of business
generally provides services to its customer who enjoys travelling and visit one destination to
another. Cabs, ships, buses, train are the part of travel and tourism industry. For example,
Crowne Plaza also provide cab facility to their visitors so that they can visit their destination
place and enjoy the trip.
Entertainment:
Entertainment is another type of business in hospitality industry, it mainly includes the
activities which customer attend such as concerts, clubs, cinemas and festivals. In hospitality
industry, entertainment plays an important role as it helps in building customer loyalty and
attracting more and more people towards the hotel. Crowne Plaza provide entertainment facility
to their customer by organising concerts and small events that helps in improving the
engagement level of customers.
Food and Beverages:
Food and Beverages is one of the largest hospitality sector as it provides services that
improves guest experience by offering first class customer service and excellent food. The Food
and beverages sector mainly includes bars, restaurant and cafe that brings people to gather for
socialising, drinking and eating (Elshaer and Marzouk, 2019). Crowne plaza provide food and
beverages facility to its customer by preparing, serving and presenting excellent food and
beverages.
Contribution of hospitality industry to local, national and international economies
Local Level:
The hospitality industry has contributed £59.3 billion in Gross value added to UK
economy. Hospitality sectors has experienced a great growth in terms of occupancy rates,
available rooms and revenue. The occupancy rates in London remains 80% and revenue per
available rooms has enhanced from £97 to £121 in London in 2017 (Feilden, 2021). Events and
external factors plays a significant role in improving the performance of Hotel industry in
London.

National Level:
In UK economy, the contribution of hospitality industry has been grown quickly than any
other sector. It also provides job opportunity to people due to which the unemployment rate in
UK decreases. Hospitality sector in Britain is considered as fourth largest employer that provides
3.2 million direct jobs to people and 2.8 million indirect jobs (Davies, 2017). It also offers
varieties of job to people due to which hospitality sector comes under top six employer in UK.
The productivity of labour in this sector has been grown at more than double rate of overall
economy. In United Kingdom the total number of tourist arrival is fluctuating, the domestic
travellers were recorded around 37.9 million in 2018. The amount of company offering
accommodation and food facilities in UK has increased by 20 percent from previous years UK
(Hospitality sector to generate £100 billion, 2018). Hospitality sector is considered as third
largest private sector employer in UK as it represents 6% of businesses, 5% of GDP and 10% of
employment.
International Level:
The Hotel industry is growing consistently by having 70,000 hotels around the world. It
generally contributes $3.41 trillion to the global economy. The reason behind increment in travel
industry is rise in purchasing power, increase number of digital influences and desire for travel
experiences. In worldwide, travelers are spending $840 billion a year for staying in hotels
(Hutton, 2021). The hospitality sectors also generate demand from various institutional investors
in order to expand their business across different regions.
Range of Operational and Functional departments within Crowne Plaza
Operational department generally utilise the resources of organisation in order to develop
products and services that satisfy the needs and demand of customer. The role of operational
department in hospitality industry is to implement resources, technology, materials and
equipments. Functional department of hospitality industry is responsible for carrying out
business functions for example, customer service, coordinating departmental tasks, food and
beverages, managing budget and supervising maintenance. In Crowne Plaza various range of
functional and operational department are as follows:
Range of Operational Department within Crowne Plaza
Housekeeping Department:

Housekeeping department is considered as one of the most important department in
hospitality industry as it influences the experience of customer. In Crowne Plaza, the main role
of housekeeping department is to ensure that common areas, restrooms, guest room, hallways,
lobbies and any other public areas must be clean and ready to use (Dube, Nhamo and Chikodzi,
2021). The housekeeping department in Crowne Plaza is responsible for managing expenses,
scheduling employees and ensuring that all rooms and public areas must meet the standards of
hotel.
Food and Beverage service department:
Food and beverages service department mainly includes the services of food prepared in
Kitchen and drinks offered in bar to customer. The food and beverages department generally
includes premises like hotel, cruise, restaurant, bars, colleges, hospitals, takeaways, etc. In
Crowne Plaza, the main motive of food and beverages department is to provide high quality food
and satisfy the needs and demand of customers in order to create strong customer base. The
department focuses on supplying hygienically prepared food and beverages to guest.
Front office department:
The main motive of front office department is to interact and contact with hotel's guest.
Crown Plaza also hires front office staff who are responsible for welcoming the guest in
professional and friendly manner and assign them rooms according to their bookings. The front
office employees deals with the complaints of customer and provide them information which
they seek in Hotel. They maintain database of guest information, ensure customer satisfaction
and coordinates guest services.
Range of Functional Department within Crowne Plaza
HR Department:
Human resource department plays various role in Crowne Plaza, they provide employees
counselling, oversee disciplinary matters, career planning, guidance and also oversee any
grievance complaints (Secchi, Roth and Verma, 2019). The main motive of HR department is to
hire right talent that can contribute their best efforts in making business successful. They design
the jobs, advertise job on appropriate media, develop job responsibilities and personal
specification, hire the candidate and also provide training to employees.
Accounting and Finance Department:

Accounting and Finance department is considered as one of the important department in
hotel industry. The few role which is played by accounting and finance department in Crowne
plaza are dealing with tax issues, cost controlling, ensure compliance with relevant laws, prepare
financial statements, managing payroll systems and credit control.
Marketing Department:
Marketing department of Crowne Plaza focuses on understanding and satisfying the need
and requirement of customer. The marketing department in Crowne Plaza carries various tasks
such as conducting marketing research, carrying out advertising and sales promotion campaigns,
developing new services and improving the growth of hotel.
Interrelationships of operational and functional units within Crowne Plaza
The operational and functional department of Crowne Plaza has interrelationship, they
work together in order to gain profitable and better results. Operational department mainly
includes housekeeping, food and beverages and front office department. For running the
department in effective manner, a proper budget is required from finance and accounting
department. In order to attract more and more customers towards the hotel, these department
requires the help of marketing team. The marketing department mainly focuses on increasing the
customer base by identifying their needs and demand (de Andrade and et. al., 2021). It is
necessary to interlink the connection between operational and functional department in order to
gain competitive advantage and run hotel activities in smooth manner. The functional department
of Crowne Plaza gathers information related to the needs and requirement of market so that
operational department can provide better and excellent services to its customer by addressing
their needs.
How use of Franchising and licensing agreements has influenced the global development of
Hospitality Industry
Franchising generally includes the right to use the brand of specific parent company for
particular period of time. Licensing means taking permission from company to sell and
manufacture the products within market. Franchising and licensing agreements has influenced
the global development of hospitality industry by producing higher revenue as compare to non-
franchised hotels. The licensing agreement creates a great opportunity for passive income and
also reduce the risk for both the parties due to which they give better results with higher profit
margin. Franchising agreement allows hotels to expand their business without taking risk of debt

which creates an impact on global development of hospitality industry as it allows hotel to grow
by using resources of others. For example, Franchising and licensing agreements influence
Crowne Plaza as it helps in improving the growth and performance of hotel in different regions
of UK and other countries.
Analyse how global growth, franchising and licensing developments have contributed to the
economic worth of Hospitality Industry
Franchising and licensing development plays an integral role for supporting the local
economy through payment of taxes and job creation. In United Kingdom, there is no specific
laws regarding the franchising. There are 48,600 franchises in total and it also give advantages to
new entrant in franchise business to grow their business activities (Franchising in the United
Kingdom, 2019). Franchising and licensing development has contributed to the economic worth
of hospitality industry as it generates high profit and also create strong brand portfolio of Hotel.
It supports national GDP of country in terms of millions of dollar and also the local economy
gets various benefits as it provides job opportunity and offer tax dollars. For example, Crowne
Plaza has its various outlets within UK but they are also focusing on developing their subsidies
brand by using franchising and licensing so that they can create job opportunities and improve
the GDP rate of other country.
Investigate the range of different operational roles within Hospitality Industry
There is various operational role within hospitality industry which focuses on attracting
and retaining customer in order to improve the growth and profitability of Hotel. The range of
different operational roles within hospitality industry are as follows:
Housekeeper:
Housekeeper is one of the important operational role within hospitality industry as they
are responsible for maintenance, public area, cleanliness, upkeep of rooms and surroundings. In
Crowne Plaza, the main motive of housekeeper is to achieve the maximum possible efficiency by
providing care and comfort to guests (Tuan, 2018). They offer a high standard of cleanliness and
upkeep in all areas. Therefore, the housekeeper of Crowne Plaza creates welcoming atmosphere
and provide reliable services to its customer.
Food and beverage manager:
Food and beverage manager is another operational role within hospitality industry, they
are responsible for the operations of kitchen and restaurant. The food and beverage manager of

Crowne Plaza is specialised in planning, forecasting and controlling the orders of food and
beverages within hotel. It is the responsibility of food and beverage manager to get familiar with
the entire operation of restaurant and also maintain variety of schedules, financial records and
orders.
Front desk manager:
Front desk manager is also an operational role within hospitality industry, they ensure
that front desk must provide professional and friendly service to its customer. The main role of
front desk manager of Crowne Plaza is to manage the reception area, supervise the support staff
and coordinate activities of front desk (Ruiz-Equihua, Romero and Casaló, 2020). Front desk
manager also deals with customer by handling their complaints and queries.
Examines the skills required for roles within Hospitality Industry and current skills shortage
Skills plays an important role in individual life as it helps in gaining the career goals and
objectives. In hospitality industry, there are various skills which is required to conduct operation
role they are as follows:
Communication skill:
Communication skill is one of the most important skill which is required for operational
role within hospitality industry. In Crowne Plaza, employees and manager requires an excellent
communication skill in order to deal with the clients (Morrone and et. al., 2021). Through
effective communication skill, manager can build strong connection with customer and also
make them loyal towards the hotel. Housekeeping and front desk manager can also make their
customer happy by satisfying their need and demand.
Team working skill:
Team working skill is another skill which is required for operation role within hospitality
industry. It is important for the employees to have team working skills so that they can
coordinate and accomplish the task collectively (Kalyar, Ali and Shafique, 2021). For example,
the restaurant manager of Crowne plaza has to work with front desk staff in order to ensure that
their customer remain happy. The team working skills helps in creating positive atmosphere and
energy in Hotel.
Cooking Skill:
Cooking skill is also a skill which is required by food and beverages department in order
to provide excellent and tasty food to its customer. It is important to have great knowledge of

cooking to chef and staff so that they can attract number of customer towards the restaurant of
Crowne Plaza. Through having expertise knowledge of cooking among staff helps in increasing
customer base and also Crown Plaza can them offer tasty and quality food.
Review the skill gaps within Hospitality Industry in relation to different operational roles
There are various skill gaps within hospitality industry in relation to different operational
roles they are as follows:
 The hospitality industry is threatened by chronic shortage of cooks, chefs, waiters, etc.,
they face lack of labour supply in market.
 Hospitality industry in UK also find recruitment process as harder, they face difficulty to
identify the right talent by addressing their skills and qualification (Mejia and Torres,
2018).
 There is a requirement of digital marketing skills among staff so that they can promote
the business and accomplish their work in effective and smooth manner.
 Lack of innovation is another skill gap within hospitality industry, in order to remain
competitive, it is important to have innovation skill among staff so that they can think out
of box and attract more and more customers with their creative and innovative ideas.
Impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and make valid solutions for addressing
these skill gaps
Skill gaps created a huge impact on the hospitality business as it influences the profit
margin and growth of Hotel. Through having skill gap, hospitality business cannot survive for a
long period of time in Market. For example, if there is a communication skill gap between the
employees of Crowne Plaza then they are not able to coordinate and fulfil the need and demand
of customer in effective and smooth manner. It is important for hospitality business to reduce the
skill gaps so that hotel can gain competitive advantage over its competitors. In order to address
the skill gap, it is necessary to provide training and development opportunity to staff so that they
can deal with current skills shortage (Chen and Chen, 2021). Crowne plaza must also hire right
talent that can contribute better results in improving the growth and success of Hotel. It is also
necessary to encourage the innovation and creativity among staff so that they can share their
creative ideas in order to attract maximum number of customer towards the hotel.

CONCLUSION
It is being concluded from the above information that hospitality industry plays a vital
role in improving the economy of UK. There are various department in hospitality industry that
collectively work together in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of hotel. The main role
of operational department in Crowne plaza is to utilise the resources for developing effective
product and services. The skills required for performing the operational role within hospitality
industry are communication skill, team working, cooking, time management and various others.
Hospitality industry also contributes to the development of economy by offering job
opportunities to people and improving GDP rate of UK.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Afsar, B., Shahjehan, A. and Shah, S. I., 2018. Frontline employees’ high-performance work
practices, trust in supervisor, job-embeddedness and turnover intentions in hospitality
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Chen, Y. A. and Chen, C .L., 2021. Case study of sustainable service design in the hospitality
industry. Chinese Management Studies.
Cheng, T. Y. and Tung, V. W. S., 2021. Dropping out of the hospitality industry after frontline
work experience: an investigation into the personal changes of hospitality employees.
International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 22(2), pp.213-233.
de Andrade, M .L and et. al., 2021. Unveiling the food safety climate’s paths to adequate food
handling in the hospitality industry in Brazil. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management.
Dube, K., Nhamo, G. and Chikodzi, D., 2021. COVID-19 cripples global restaurant and
hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(11), pp.1487-1490.
Elshaer, A .M. and Marzouk, A. M., 2019. Labor in the tourism and hospitality industry: skills,
ethics, issues, and rights. Apple Academic Press.
Kalyar, M. N., Ali, F. and Shafique, I., 2021. Green mindfulness and green creativity nexus in
hospitality industry: examining the effects of green process engagement and CSR.
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Mejia, C. and Torres, E. N., 2018. Implementation and normalization process of asynchronous
video interviewing practices in the hospitality industry. International Journal of
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Morrone, D and et. al., 2021. Digitalisation in the hospitality industry: Motivations, effects and
role of Covid-19. International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 3(3-
4), pp.257-270.
Ruiz-Equihua, D., Romero, J. and Casaló, L. V., 2020. Better the devil you know? The
moderating role of brand familiarity and indulgence vs. restraint cultural dimension on
eWOM influence in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management, 29(3), pp.310-328.
Secchi, E., Roth, A. and Verma, R., 2019. The impact of service improvisation competence on
customer satisfaction: Evidence from the hospitality industry. Production and
Operations Management, 28(6), pp.1329-1346.
Tuan, L. T., 2018. Driving employees to serve customers beyond their roles in the Vietnamese
hospitality industry: The roles of paternalistic leadership and discretionary HR
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Yao, S and et. al., 2019. Effectiveness of error management training in the hospitality industry:
Impact on perceived fairness and service recovery performance. International Journal of
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