What is the hospitality industry?
Most people define professions in a simplified manner by what those professions do. Engineers build things; Economists study money; Psychologists look into people’s minds; Doctors take care of patients; Hotelier’s look after people and so on…
It gets a bit more complicated when describing a hospitality professional because a hospitality professional isn't a specific job title. Rather, it refers to anyone who works within the hospitality industry. As per Professor Peter Jones, Dean of the eHotelier Academy, “There is no one single professional qualification that provides a route of entry into being recognized as hospitality professional. As a term it can be applied at all levels within the industry from the professional chef, the professional waiter, the professional manager, the professional GM. It is the application of knowledge and skills relevant to the role of the individual that is fundamental in developing the ‘professional wisdom’ that is recognized by peers and the public”.
He goes on to add that “It is not, as with some other industries, a prerequisite to be a graduate nor to be operating at a particular level within the organisation”. And that’s what makes it hard to describe hospitality industry. It does indeed!
For decades, the hospitality industry has struggled to convey in a unified manner exactly what it encompasses and what it provides. Characterized by a multi-sectoral plethora of operations that bring a huge bouquet of service offerings provided by multinational hotel corporations to sole owners to home stays, it is hard to describe in a few words, the value it brings to individuals, communities and societies without a long narrative.
Some attempt to include the varying service provisions under the umbrella of hospitality; food and beverage, accommodation, meetings, leisure, travel and others as representative of the industry. Others, talk of an industry that creates memories and customer experiences woven into the fabric of service as an explanation of “what we do” as an industry.
According to the American Hospitality Academy, “The hospitality industry is a large sector of service-oriented businesses that rely on creating strong, positive customer interactions. Not all businesses need strong customer interactions. Manufacturing companies and product suppliers, for example, often work behind the curtains to build and distribute products. Hospitality, businesses, on the other hand, deals with customers on a daily basis and must foster positive relationships in order to thrive”.
Wikipedia describes the hospitality industry as “a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars.”
By chance I happened to come across a beautiful scripture what the hospitality industry is, written by Chris Muller, Ph.D. in 2019. He truly captures the very essence of what we, in the industry do, as quoted below:-
“Hospitality is a business unlike any other. For two thousand years, we have stood with our arms outstretched in front of our inns, restaurants, and hotels saying, “Come into my life for an hour or a night. Let me restore you, feed you, make you whole once again, you will be safe in my care.”
Ours is a world that welcomes the stranger, comforts the sojourner, and cares for those in need of rest and solace. We are the people who leave the light in the window on the darkest night, the place where there will always be another place at the table, another blanket against the cold. For we are the people who serve you a drink at the pool, help you celebrate a birthday, cater a wedding, commiserate over a divorce, pop the champagne at your retirement, serve at your parent’s 50th anniversary, and console friends at your wake. We serve so others may share their lives together.
Because Hospitality is the central core of being human, it is the single activity that unites all of the world’s religious, moral, and ethical beliefs. Only in service to others will we find the path to salvation, redemption, a better life.
Hospitality is not just a job, it’s a way of living, one that people in the industry would embrace whether they were paid or not”.
The Hospitality industry is very large and complex. While it is closely connected to the hotel and travel industry it is yet distinct from both. Hospitality is not about a set of services – it is a culture, a concept as well as an industry.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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