Emerging Trends in Hospitality

This article discusses the current and future trends influencing the hospitality industry in India, including globalization, safety and security, technology, sustainability, healthy food, diversity, and more. It also explores the positive and negative impacts of these trends and provides recommendations to minimize the risks.

Running Head: Emerging Trends in Hospitality
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Emerging Trends in Hospitality
9/30/2018

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 1
Introduction
In India, the hospitality industry is changing at a fast pace and there is a steady increase in
international arrivals. It recognizes some of the current and future trends affecting the
hospitality industry involving sustainability, safety and security, the significance of
providing outstanding service, and technologies that improve competitiveness and
tremendous growth. It will help in providing more jobs globally with sustainable
advantage to the workforce. Technology plays a major role in transforming the hospitality
industry better than before. Now, potential guests can make their bookings online from
their respective place. Service quality is the live-wire as reservations of clients should be
accurate; check-in needs to be finalized in five minutes, stay of residence must be
protected, and billing must be free from error. As India is a country recognized for lavish
treatment to all customers and despite the monetary slowdown, it adds to attractiveness as
a medical tourism destination. Over the periods, the hospitality industry has experienced
development and diversification to become one of the fastest developing financial sectors
in the world (Jones, Hillier & Comfort 2016, p. 53). In the following, an effort has been
made to discuss the current and future trends influencing the hospitality industry in
positive as well as negative sense and recommendations to minimize the risks.
Current trends influencing the hospitality industry
 Globalization
In India, it has made for people to trade freely around the world. This has made it
easier for customers to experience new cultures, adapt more knowledge, and
continuously upgrade the products as well as services to attract as many customers
as possible.
There are negative effects of globalization on the hospitality industry as it is
always cheaper to hire people from other countries to work but they face
communication barrier, which as a result most customers get irritated. Cultural
barriers act as another negative impact as customers come from diverse cultures so
it is to make sure that they are not offended (Pirani & Arafat 2016, p. 141).
 Safety and security
The Indian’s are concerned with security, which has improved vastly because of
various terrorist attacks globally, as well as due to kidnapping, assaults, and
robbery. The first priority should be the safety of customers so they have accessed
full-body scanners and hidden security cameras in respect to ensuring customers
safety. Security measures have been initiated in many international airports and
hotels of India by investing millions of dollars.
As it has negative impacts too, by this customers are offended that these
technologies are breaching their privacy and as a result, it harmed the reputation
(Zaitseva et al. 2016, p. 7180).
 Technology
Technology is a powerful force of change that offers opportunities for greater
integration and efficiencies for improving customer services. With the
development of technology, i.e. Indian customers have better communication tool
and advanced software which permits operational productivity, for example,
orders might be made better, cheaper, and faster. It improves staff productivity and
decreases response time to fulfill customer desires. Today, potential customers can

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 2
make their bookings online from home. It provides the opportunity for a
streamlined and simplified customer experience.
It is also disrupting the industry as reviews on social media can have an impact on
reputation and growth can be decreased (Sharma 2016, p. 472).
 Sustainability
Eco-friendly practices are becoming the standard; Indian customers are presently
concentrating on renewable energy sources and water scarcity. Now, they are
installing solar panels and innovative framework so that air conditioner and lights
automatically switch-off when customers leave their rooms. It will become
entirely self-sufficient by contributing their own energy, especially those in rural
areas. It will also have a positive impact on customer experience and a sustainable
corporate culture is adopted, which provides a distinct advantage in respect to
retain and attract talent. It has also negative impacts as it causes the destructive
image of a surrounding by consuming a lot of energy and water, e.g. electricity for
refrigeration, air conditioner etc. They also contribute to the generation of
hazardous waste and chemical disposal (Kandampully, Zhang & Bilgihan 2015, p.
403).
 Health Food
Healthy eating increasingly important in the hospitality industry as being able to
deliver tasty, exciting dishes is a prerequisite for success. As Indians love food, so
top-most priority should be providing the best service and healthy food to retain
the customers. As Indians are very much concerned about their fitness, so they are
providing with well-equipped fitness centers, yoga spaces, spa, and pools.
However, at the same time, they are facing negative impacts, which not only
affects their health also faces severe diseases. As those customers who are more
health-conscious are consuming stale or contaminated food and because of that,
they are facing several health problems such as high blood pressure, food
poisoning, diabetes etc. that gives a bad impact on their reputation and success
(Namkung & Jang 2017, p. 345).
 Source of Foreign Exchange Earnings
It has a significant source of foreign exchange earning in India and has a positive
influence on the balance of payment of the nation. The hospitality in India has
created about US$100 billion in 2008 and that is likely to rise to US$275.5 billion
by 2018 at a 9.4 % annual growth rate. It also poses negative impacts as it brings
economic crises as recession, currency fluctuation, unprofitability, taxation, and
falling revenues (Chen, Chittoor & Vissa 2015, p. 514).
 Promoting peace and stability
It also suggests that in developing countries like India diversifying the economy,
promoting cross-cultural awareness, providing employment, creating income,
protecting the employees & customers’ interest, and maintaining a peaceful
environment, keep the employees happy and they enjoyed the work, which is very
important for the hospitality industry. In this cooperation is of vital importance
and this is lacking in employees then it cannot grow and achieve success (Mishra
& Verma 2017, p. 927).
 Diversity
The hospitality industry of India is among the most different of all industries in
terms of population and group of customers. It presents a new opportunity to
comprehend and appreciate diverse cultures in order to increase the nature of their

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 3
connections with customers of different values, race, colour, religion, sexual
orientation, and gender. It is also stated that customer who experiences
outstanding service probably spent more on other activities i.e. room service, spa,
reservation factor, recreational activities etc. When it became more diverse, it
changes the nature and association of the hospitality industry. These variations can
cause stress among employees, contributes to the poor working relationship, and
reduces the morale, which will affect their responsibility and processes (Kundu &
Mor 2017, p. 174).
Future trends influencing the hospitality industry
 More green and eco-lodgings
Sustainability has become progressively important to the hospitality industry as
well as customers. With advanced practices such as installing solar-powered
power heaters and offer locally sourced toiletries, in resorts are finding more
attractive and cost-effective means to make their services, events, and other
services as green as possible, which are beneficial for customers. There should be
a clean environment as the success of the Indian hotel and tourism is depending
upon the availability of the green concept. However, their operation leads to
pollution, waste, and other elements, which represents a threat to the environment
as well as industry (Negi, Tiwari & Singh 2014, p. 52).
 Expansion of Mega Hotels
The Hospitality industry continues to grow at an impressive rate, as it should
provide multi-purpose facilities with casinos, theme park, shops, and theatre. India
is also gearing up to capitalize to be competitive with the application of innovation
and cutting-edge technologies. This will generate high return and profitability in
future. It has negative impacts too as the development of mega hotels in an initial
stage can decrease revenue because of lack of technology, staff, and operations
which affects hospitality industry in a vast manner (Gibbs, MacDonald & MacKay
2015, p. 179).
 Sustainability
It is widely regarded as the key to a successful business, which is a prime concern
for the hospitality industry as in order to re-use grey water, reduce energy use,
recycle, prevent waste, and lower carbon footprints, which promotes work-life
balance, customers health, and well-being, assume responsibility, and conduct
their business sustainably. Sustainability associates with profitability as more and
more Indian customers are enthusiastic to reward business and promote health and
well-being. On the other hand, it is involved in hazardous waste and disposal by
which customers get disappointed and causes an impact on the hospitality industry
(Dhar 2015, p. 421).
 Improving employee remunerations in respect to hold the present staff
It is about half of the Indian employees will be Millennial which assist a greater
determination, donate to society, and offer time and space for employees to take
the advantage in trying to do their best. This will enhance their service quality and
engages workforce planning and creativity. It will influence negatively as to retain
the best staff it cost higher and quality of service is been decreased (Amin 2016, p.
282).

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 4
 More emphasis on Internet and Technology
Intelligent hotels with progressive technology using the customer's virtual
fingerprint in respect to achieve all the processes in check-in, check-out, and
payment through Paytm facility is available by which digital transformation is
provided to customers and this may help the hospitality industry to grow. On the
other hand, technology is enhancing at a quite wide range as this may dishearten
the employees’ morale due to afraid of losing employment because they believe
that technology will replace them and quality of service is decreased (Leung, Xue
& Bai 2015, p. 1561).
 Internet of Things
In the very near future of the hospitality industry in India, IoT will play a key role
in changing the technology used in the industry. The Refrigerator, TV’s will be
internet enabled and capability to provide the service within seconds. This will
help the customers in staying more and get the best quality service. It is also
introducing threats such as security breaches and cyber-attacks. It will affect the
whole industry and risk to customers’ security and safety and this may reduce the
gap between customers’ requirement and service quality (Ansari, Jain & Kaur
2017, p. 386).
 Healthy Food
Healthy food trends are progressively increasing at a very fast pace as they should
produce organic food and ethnic culturally variant foods with distinct flavour,
ingredients, and spices. They can also offer fusion food and more vegetarian meals
as mostly customers are pure vegetarian so to respect their culture and health they
can concentrate on that. This may help the industry to grow and maintain profit.
On the other hand, in India cancer is the severe disease affecting the customers’ in
very increasing way. This is due to unhealthy food being served in the hotels,
which not only increases the hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease & harms the
reputation as well (Jin et al. 2015, p. 460).
 Disruption
It has brought down the number of human errors and unsatisfied customers
increase the experience of customers and even reduce the burden on the employee.
It also enhanced reactiveness in the industry, which ensures long-term
sustainability and secure growth. It is also providing harm and lack of physical
resources is there. Once disruption occurs, it is difficult to maintain and takes time
to recover and build up resilience. This may develop dissatisfaction in the minds
of customers and that is the main factor, which is lacking and needs some
maintenance (Mandal, Roy & Raju 2017, p. 126).
Recommendation
They should increase their security awareness and expect correct responses from
employees to train them so that they can lead in reducing the risks. To mitigate the risk,
proper food handling and sanitation training, extensive cleaning and vacuuming should be
done; properly screening should be done of drivers. They should ensure sound financial
management system and control exposure to hazardous substance and loud noise. As
India has been ranked to deliver the best service quality to every customer, which has to
boost the industry and government is taking the initiative to collaborate with leading
airlines, holiday resorts, and deliver a wide range of good quality service to develop the
opportunities to mitigate the risk (Yadav, Kumar & Swaroop Pathak 2016, p. 2190).

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 5
Conclusion
There is a worldwide increase in the hospitality industry that contributes to the
advancement by indicating the green practices that might be most appropriate to
customers. The current and future trends that are majorly influencing the industry are
customers safety and security, enhanced quality serviced of customers, diversity in the
human resource development, new innovative technologies, enhance competitiveness.
The future trends in the hospitality industry that are affecting positively and negatively
are factors, which can be effective for the industry to serve customers well and identify
the culture, race, class and according to that provide the best quality service. It is very
important to recognize the current and future trends in the industry, which helps in
making the right adaptations, as well as spend in exceptional services to meet the needs of
customers. It will help in analyzing new technologies; improve effectiveness, and using
social networking for their marketing. They should concentrate on the health and wellness
of every customer, which is currently a new trend in hospitality.

Emerging Trends in Hospitality 6
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Emerging Trends in Hospitality 7
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The success of the hospitality industry is based on the human factor, which is of
vital importance. They only create competitive advantage and makes or breaks a
customer experience. It is to be necessary to develop a sustainable workforce,
educate the employees about meeting the requirement of customers, and fulfill
their desired needs. If they do not get the adequate training then it can be a
disadvantage to the hospitality industry, which is the main factor influencing on a
greater scale