Contemporary Hospitality: UK Industry Analysis and Trends Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the UK hospitality industry, examining its structure, emerging trends, and the role of professional bodies. The report begins with an overview of the industry's structure, revenue, and workforce, highlighting the importance of the travel and tourism sector. It then delves into the roles of professional bodies like the British Hospitality Association and the British Safety Council, and examines the staffing requirements and skills needed within the industry, using Intercontinental Hotel Group as a case study. The analysis covers emerging trends in demand and supply, along with the skills and qualifications needed for various roles. The report concludes with an evaluation of recent developments affecting the legal, operational, and management areas of the hospitality industry, as well as potential trends and developments needed in the sector.

CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 (LO1)....................................................................................................................................3
P1.1 and P1.2: (A): Understanding the current structure of UK’s hospitality industry (M1).........3
P1.3: (B): Examining and assessing the role of the professional bodies along with the hospitality
organization.....................................................................................................................................4
Task 2 (LO2):..................................................................................................................................5
P2.1: (A): Assessing the emerging trends of demand and supply of hospitality staffs and
discussing how the industry is meeting the staffing requirements (M2).........................................5
P2.2: (B): Discussing the skills and qualifications requirements of the personnel’s based on the
roles staffing roles and responsibilities (D1)...................................................................................7
Task 3 (LO3.....................................................................................................................................8
P3.1: (A): Evaluating how the recent development affecting the legal, operational and
management areas of hospitality industry (M3)..............................................................................8
P3.2: (B): Demonstrating the overall image of the UK’s hospitality industry................................9
Task 4 (LO4...................................................................................................................................10
P4.1: (A): Presenting potential trends and the developments needed in the hospitality sector (D2)
.......................................................................................................................................................10
P4.2: (B): Producing an analysis of impacts for predicting the trends in the hospitality industry
(D3)................................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference list.................................................................................................................................13
Appendices................................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Hospitality industry of UK has become one of the major revenue generating sector of the
economy. Adding to this it has also been observed that the prime players of this hospitality sector
of UK is the travel and tourism department whose are trading and dealing as the utmost player
and serving the national GDP the most. At the present era the world economy has been
witnessing that the UK has the near about 180,000 hospitality providing department and
employing more than 2 million of people both nationally and globally. The current assignment
will shed its light on understanding the UK’s hospitality structure and for examining the role of
the professional bodies in the hospitality industry of UK, and this research being a largest and
crucial hospitality organization namely Intercontinental Hotel Group has been taken.
Task 1 (LO1)
P1.1 and P1.2: (A): Understanding the current structure of UK’s hospitality industry (M1)
It has been observed that the hospitality industry of UK has been placed in the 4th position in the
year of 2011-12 as the largest revenue seeking industry, it has been observed that the this sector
of the UK is yielding the total revenue of 53 billion in the national GDP of the UK (bha.org,
2017). As per the research work of Atwal and Williams (2017), it has been observed that the
nearby 10% of the total workforce in the UK nation is employed in the hospitality industry. In
general terms it can be said that near about 2.6 million of the UK’s population is employed in the
hospitality industry of varying sector including hospitals, travel and tourism along with different
large and medium scale holes and restaurants at UK.
The scope and scale of various ranges of hotel and restaurants is to provide various services and
facilities related to food and lodging. The management structure in various hospitality industries
is a complex process where several countries are working hard to achieve organization
objectives. Therefore, the industries are recruiting skilled staffs to perform their respective work
role effectively. Besides, the market varies in several types of ownership like direct ownership on
chains of franchise and hotel system. Moreover, the staffing level in categorized in various
groups to make the organization more functional and handle issues which is related to customers.
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Along with this Deery and Jago (2015), had found out from his research work that most of
business diversification takes place in this industry of UK along with this it has also been noted
that that huge number of voyages round the globe are visiting UK mainly the London as the
metropolitan city. Along with this it has also been observed that the hospitality unit of UK
includes various business including beverages, food, contract catering, accommodation, bars and
pubs makes the UK’s the hospitality sector of UK. Adding up to this as per the research work of
British Hospitality Association (BHA) had predicted that by 2020 the UK’s hospitality industry
will provide the employment of 300,000 individual and will negatively serve towards the
unemployment rate of UK (bha.org, 2017). The work structure of BHA has been indentified in
terms of production of proper vigilance services to employees. The employees in the
organization has been prioritized to be satisfied with provision of several motivation methods
such as to enhance their dedication level. Therefore, it has been long realized that the functioning
among the members in the organization has also been prioritized by Institute of Hospitality. Such
kind of working structure has been found to be helpful and can be considered in terms of
sincerity.
P1.3: (B): Examining and assessing the role of the professional bodies along with the
hospitality organization
It has been observed that the hospitality industry of UK consist of different professional bodies
that are acting as the responsible organisation in managing the overall the hospitality industry of
UK. There is a list of different professional organisation or professional bodies that is controlling
daily activities of the industry as a whole. This list includes British Hospitality Association
(BHA), in the year of 1907 this organisation has been framed for the restaurant industry and is a
non government governing body having its headquartered at London, England (ihgplc, 2017).
The purpose of establishing this organisation is to serve the tourism and hospitality industry in
the order to follow the government policies including Trade Descriptions Act 1968 in the process
of trading (bha.org, 2017). In addition to this Ladkin and Buhalis (2016), putted his comment on
the fact for this establishment of the organisation is to give support to the hostel industry of UK
and to represent England as the leading hotel industry (bha.org, 2017).
On the other hand Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu (2014), has also added his comment on the
objective of the formation of BAH in England to put restriction in the liquor taking. History of
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hospitality industry of UK has evidence the fact that in the year of 1906 the government putted
forwards the rules and regulation to ban the alcohol consumption.
Advertising and marketing professional body is important to promote the organization
effectively so that their services are received to the potential customers. Marketing is important
to attract the customers and increase their number. The human resource department is another
important professional body who deals with recruitment and selection of employees. It all
depends on human resource department hand as they compare the present skills of candidates
with the skills required for the job. Besides, they support organization by training the staffs as
per the roles they will be performing. The professional body of financial manager is equally
important as they deal with financial report by stating organization profit and loss.
Adding to this as the part of the government body British Safety Council has been formed in the
year of 1957 with its main motto of providing safety precaution for both the customers and
workers those are working in the hospitality department (britsafe.org, 2017). Along with this it
has also been found that in order to provide management to the hospitality sector mainly the
resorts and restaurants the British Resort Association has been formed to control the activities of
resorts and restaurants round the UK boundary. The professional bodies in the hospitality
industry have been considered to be highly accumulated with several divisions. The HR
management divisions, the financial divisions, etc are included within this. All these have an
individual functioning of them as stated.
Task 2 (LO2):
P2.1: (A): Assessing the emerging trends of demand and supply of hospitality staffs and
discussing how the industry is meeting the staffing requirements (M2)
Labour force plays a crucial role in the hospitality sector of UK along with this it has been
observed from the research work of Law et al. (2015), that 10% of the total workforce in the UK
nation is employed in the hospitality industry that amounts to 2.6 million of population. It has
been observed from the staffing structure of the hospitality industry of UK that it varies from
different level of the employee recruitment in the firm including staffing in the organisation for
playing the role as a catering and hotel manager, outlets or restaurant manager and counter boy
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and accountants along with outlet cleaner, kitchen operating in charge and other housekeeping
staffs.
Figure 1: Staffing types
(Source: Nachmias and Walmsley, 2015)
The first requirement for hospitality industry is the need of skilled workers who are comfortable
in handling any kind of job role especially the hose-keeping department. Customers are satisfied
with the services that they get with clean and hygienic rooms. Therefore, they need to proper
training and development program so that they can manage their work role efficiently.
Hospitality industry must focus on the requirement of customers and make them satisfied with
their needs. Besides, the staffs must have enough patience with the customer to achieve customer
loyalty.
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It has been observed for the current organisation namely Intercontinental Hotel Group has
employed all the staffs amounting to 28,587 employees including the managing staffs and
management staffs (ihgplc, 2017). The annual report of the hotel has evidenced the fact that the
hotel has its operating management chain and is operating in 100 countries at present time, it has
been observed that the hotel is having more than 52 senior employee working in as the
permanent employees and serving the hotel from the managing department (ihgplc, 2017). It has
also been observed that in the year of 2015 the hotel is having the total employee strength of
27,057 employee including the managing staffs and employee of the group which has been hiked
up to 28,587 employees in the year of 2016 (ihgplc, 2017). The recruitment trends in the
hospitality sector have been included certain criteria such as proper trained employees, skills of
functioning in efficient. Furthermore, skills of the candidates to be well communicative in all
forms such as formal and informal communications have been considered as an important
criterion. Besides, the employees have also been soughed under proper educational qualification
of the candidates. The degree of the candidates has been considered as the most important
criteria along with practical eligibility to be a part of the hospitality industry.
P2.2: (B): Discussing the skills and qualifications requirements of the personnel’s based on
the roles staffing roles and responsibilities (D1)
It has been observed that there lays some popular roles of employee in the hospitality industry
that had focused towards the staffing skills and requirement at Intercontinental Hotel Group. It
has been observed by Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic (2015), that thought the Executive Vice
President and Chief Information Officer of the hotel has a proper employee strategy and policy
for monitoring the employee performance there still lays some loopholes. It has been observed
that the prime skills that the employee and staffs of the hotel needs includes building of the
connection among the higher and lower level employees along with the skills required in the
context of technical and language.
As per the research work of Gibson (2016), has fallen its light on the fact the firm's employee has
loopholes in the team work and having the flexibility of the working times that had fallen its
issue on the employee and staffs performance in the hotel. As per the opinion of Hall and
Gössling (2013), due to the issue arising in regard of adjustment with the flexible timings of the
employee and staff working the work pressure is given some of the employees. This leads to
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arising internal conflict in the firm that will ultimately leads to the leading to the decline in the
quality of hospitality service served.
Leadership skill is important to carry the role of staffing as they are the one who can understand
the skills present within an employee. Besides, in hospitality industry identical work roles are
performed by the employees for example, housekeeping, maintaining kitchen and mainly more.
Therefore, the leader should understand the role of every employee and distribute their work
accordingly. The skills of leader also motivate the employees and improve their work
performance. Hence, it reduce employee turnover and increases retention rate.
Managerial skills are also important for planning, controlling, organization and staffing. They are
the one who looks after the remuneration and promotion of employees.
In addition to this it has been observed by Mok, Sparks and Kadampully (2013), that the firm is
having the issue regarding the existence of the obsolete communication system in the firm. The
opinion of Prebensen, Chen and Uysal (2014), had influenced the fact for the importance of
having an effective connection among the high and lower level staff of the firm is importance in
gearing up the employee performance of the firm. It has been noticed for the Intercontinental
Hotel Group that due to the absence of communication skills within the employees leading to the
issue of communicating with the clients and vendors of the firm.
Task 3 (LO3
P3.1: (A): Evaluating how the recent development affecting the legal, operational and
management areas of hospitality industry (M3)
Each and every economy has proved the fact that in a usual trend every industry companies to
face some or other challenges either that are arising from the internal or from the external part of
business. In this same way it has also been observed that hospitality industry of UK had went
through various emerging issues. Past studies of the hospitality industry has witnessed the fact
that with the passage of time the sector has went through numerous issues arising from the legal,
managing and operating activities of the sector. As per the observation of Gummesson (2014), it
has been noticed that the largest industrial sector of UK has also went through issue in the
context of operational management or regarding the legislative and management issue.
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Some of that issue that the UK’s hospitality industry is facing in the current era includes issue
related to the skill sets retention, issue for the existing regulations, problem for small scale
establishment along with the issue related to the emerging technologies. As opined by
Gummesson (2014), that in hospitality organisation is famous for the variety of cuisine for their
customers, this serves as the customers to fulfill their needs and desire. However, it has been
observed that in order to prepare any special dishes and to present them in front of the customers
for which the chefs are important in the hotel. As stated by Atwal and Williams (2017), due to
the issue of lack of quality and skilled chefs the hospitality industry of UK is facing the issue
regarding establishment of the business leading to the arising of the customer’s dissatisfaction
regarding the quality of goods and services provided.
Adding up to this Jones et al. (2016), mentioned that in order to provide a well organisation
structure of the firm there is a importance of an effective communication existence in the firm.
Having an effective communication helps the operating department of the firm to communicate
with the lower level staffs, vendors and suppliers of the firm. Due to the issue arising regarding
the communication gap in the hospitality sector of UK leads to the issue of drop down of
employee performance. Adding up to this it has also been noticed that the main issue that is
arising in the hospitality industry of UK includes the issue regarding the updating government
regulations. Past history of UK’s hospitality industry has evidenced the fact that the sector is
facing the issue regarding many legal and policy regulation issue.
It has been observed that in the current times UK is having legislative regulation in the same
sector includes Trade Descriptions Act 1968 for identifying the type of trading activities
(bha.org, 2017). Along with this other regulation and legislation includes Credit Card Order 1990
for availing credit, Data Protection Act 1998 for confidential data and for safety precaution
includes Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (britsafe.org, 2017). This
leads to the issue arising for the trade practices of the hospitality firms due to the huge indirect
expenses.
P3.2: (B): Demonstrating the overall image of the UK’s hospitality industry
Maintaining the image of the hospitality industry is among one of the prime objective of the
sector those are acting under this organisation. It has been opined by Ladkin and Buhalis (2016),
goodwill and arising dilemmas along with the financial stability of the firm plays a vital role in
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framing their image in front of the customers and vendors. In this current assignment work by
taking Intercontinental Hotel Group it has been observed that the firm had earned the image in
the hospitality industry by serving deferential brand to its customers and major stake.
The image of hospitality industry can be created by taking the benefit of online marketing
approach. Using social media is an effective marketing tool for the hospitality industry. It allows
large number of customers to avail their services. Moreover, if any discounts or offers are given
in the hotel the loyal customers can easily access to it. The official website has to do a lot as the
comment sections are used to give feedback to the organization.
It has been observed from the annual report of the firm that the firm is a British multinational
hotels company having its headquartered at Denham, UK and operating nearby 100 countries in
a worldwide basis (ihgplc, 2017).
Task 4 (LO4
P4.1: (A): Presenting potential trends and the developments needed in the hospitality sector
(D2)
Being one of the prime UK industry providing contribution towards the UK’s economic growth
it had also evidenced the potential changes in the today's world with the emerging technologies
and to mitigate the issues regarding the globalization and changing attitude of the customers and
their taste. It has been observed that due to the change in the tourism industry and landscape of
other hospitality sector of the industry had also lead to build up the changing attitudes of the
hospitality sector of UK as a whole. As far the research work of Rahimi and Kozak (2017), it has
been notified that there are some potential changes and developments in the UK’s hospitality
sector as a whole.
Trends Positive/Negative Level of Impact
Focusing Sustainability Positive High
Changing Lifestyle Positive Medium
Social Media Positive Medium
Bookings via mobile Positive High
Renovations of infrastructure Positive High
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Table 1: Potential trends
(Source: Self Created)
This list of various potential trends and development in the hospitality industry of UK includes
focusing on the renovating the old properties of the firm, modification in the bookings procedure
in the hospitality sectors. In addition to this Gursoy and Sandstrom (2016), putted forward the
comment regarding the usage of social media in the process of promotion of the sector and
focusing mainly on the sustainability of the sector. Hospitality industry of UK includes numerous
hotels and resorts that had evidenced the fact regarding the sharpe slip down of the customer’s
turnover due to which the sector had decided to take the step for renovating the underlying
infrastructure of the firm.
Due to the changing lifestyle of the customers the hospitality products of UK had undergone to
various changes for catering with the changing tastes of the customers and thus included the
budgets for the travellers’ preferences (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017).
P4.2: (B): Producing an analysis of impacts for predicting the trends in the hospitality
industry (D3)
Being the part of the hospitality industry of UK Intercontinental Hotel Group has includes some
of the changes to cop up with the changing attire of the customer and their lifestyle. It has been
observed that the firm is also facing the risk arising from the emerging technologies in the
hospitality sector in order make a risk averse environment in the firm the hotel has some of the
forwards looking to resolve this aroused risk. As observed from the annual report of the firm it
has been observed that the firm has adopted the internet and mobile technology in the process of
bookings and order taking and giving to their vendors (ihgplc, 2017).
The trend of promoting hospitality industry via social media approach is effective as it will
enable in knowing the services given by them. Besides, for gaining competitive advantage in the
market place the organization can focus on sustainability in order to contribute in corporate
social responsibility policies. The trend of booking hotel services via mobile is high and make
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the work easier for every individual. They are able to attract customers as online booking gives
the customers discounts on certain services.
Conclusion
Denoment can be drawn by the windup of the above assignment regarding the hospitality
industry of UK one can able to understand the significance of the contribution of the hospitality
industry towards the national; GDP and unemployment mitigation of UK. Moreover, it has also
been understandable by the cession of the above assignment regarding the so raised issue in the
contemporary world of business arising from the operating, managing and updating the
government regulations of the industry. Eventually, the assignment will act as the evidence
regarding the changing viewpoint of the customers in the hospitality industry of UK. Evenmore
than this the report has also outlined the factors that had lead to changing attitudes of one of the
large corporate firm of UK namely Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). At the end of the above
assignment one can able to understand the importance of understanding the customer’s
perspective by IHG.
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