Career Options in the Hospitality Industry
“Hospitality is simply love on the loose.”
- Joan D. Chittister
The hospitality industry can be explained as a canopy hiding a lot of exciting and colorful experiences. It encompasses sectors that are ranging from hotels and hospitals to travel and tourism. According to World Travel and Tourism, travel and tourism in the year 2019, had contributed to 10.3% of the Global GDP which is equal to US $8.9 trillion.
The main drivers of the revenue generation in the hospitality industry are:
1. Increase in the number of global travelers every year.
2. Fall in the airfare with increased travelers.
3. Popularity of expensive and exotic travel experiences.
Sectors of the Hospitality Industry
1. Accommodation:
This includes hotels, resorts (tourist destinations), vacation rentals, and camping. All of these have roles ranging from receptionists, chefs, room attendants to banquet attendants. They also have managerial roles where one needs to manage the team and help increase the target sales.
2. Food and Beverage:
This includes restaurants, cafes, take-away, quick service establishments, catering, food trucks, food courts, night clubs, bars, and pubs. This sector demands a lot of persistence and at par communication skills but is also full of great experiences and surprises.
3. Travel:
As the name suggests the luxuries include traveling in airlines, cruises, private jets, and chartered planes. If you love traveling, this is for you. Not only does this sector allow you to visit new places but allow you to adapt to a lot of foreign cultures and practices that can transform you as an individual.
4. Tourism:
Tour planning, destination management, tour packaging, tour guides, and translator are the various roles that come under this very sector. If organizing and planning an itinerary, booking hotels, looking for suitable destinations excite you, then, this is the best place to be.
5. Events:
Does planning an event and seeing its execution make you satisfied and happy? If yes, then, event management which includes ceremonies, parties, concerts, conferences, fashion shows, etc. is what you are looking for. This industry allows you to work around all the process of an event.
6. Health and wellness:
It is particularly important to be healthy and fit to experience all the pleasure that the world has to offer. This is where this sector of hospitality comes into play. Hospitals, nursing homes, wellness center, diagnostic center, and spa comes under this sector as well.
7. Management roles:
This includes human resources, personal relations, accounts, sales and marketing, auditing, policymakers, information technology, maintenance personnel, engineers, interior decorators, etc.
8. Others:
The list of other sectors that come under the hospitality industry is Amusement parks, galleries, casinos, banks, and consulting firms. Different sectors have different training process that one has to complete before he/she can be a part of the particular industry.
9. Starting your own business:
Hospitality is a vast industry with a large number of possibilities which makes it worthwhile for individuals to dreams big. There is absolutely no limit to what one can achieve. With the appropriate knowledge, determination, communication skill, trading skills, and organizing skills; one can open a business in any of the aforementioned sectors. You could open a restaurant merging two cuisines or you could open a travel guidance firm, or you could even open an educational institute to educate the youth about the various options the industry can offer.
Hospitality is not easily replaceable:
The hospitality industry cannot be easily affected by technological advances because this particular industry is based on human interaction. This industry requires people to understand the customers and treat them or dealt with them, in their unique way.
Some of the major reasons why the hospitality industry cannot be replaced are:
i. Handling guests and building relationship is not possible by machines.
ii. Providing improvised personal attention and services to the guests cannot be achieved by AI.
iii. Solving and managing unpredictable issues is best done by a person rather than a machine.
If you are adventurous by nature and are not afraid of unknown challenges this is the industry for you. The Hospitality industry opens the door to new talents, interests, and diverse cultures around us. Hospitality is not about inviting people into your perfect homes but to your imperfect heart. It also includes the act of making them feel at home while they are away from home. This is what makes hospitality such a colorful industry to work in.
