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The hospitality sector in the United Kingdom is a varied and broad industry stretching from a personal organization to international corporations. It comprises four major business sectors, including accommodation services, food, and beverage business, recreational and travel, and tourism sector (Bowie et al., 2016). Notably, the UK hospitality industrys key players include the British Hospitality Association body, influential managers such as Jamie Oliver and Sir Francis Mackey.
According to the British Hospitality Association, the industry contributes to the UK economy, totaling 19% of the total national income (Bowie et al., 2016, p. 67). UK hospitality industry majorly targets local and international tourists for their customers. The paper seeks to identify and analyses the contemporary issues and challenges facing the industry.
The United Kingdom Hospitality sector has witnessed new trends and changes that impact their performance. The sector has recorded waves of digital innovations that include voice search and voice control commonly used by customers in search for and booking of preferred hotels and restaurants (Bore et al., 2017). The use of robots to provide customer services; reception, housekeeping chores, and security help reduce peoples contact.
Furthermore, UK hospitality has adopted the use of a smart room access system that enables their guests to lock their room doors using phones. Additionally, with the COVID-19 situation, the hotels have witnessed new trends intended to help improved safety and hygiene (Bore et al., 2017). Measures involve the use of sanitizers, observation of social distances, wearing of face masks, and contactless payment methods are adopted in hotels and restaurants to help reduce peoples chances of contracting the virus.
Internship and graduate-level job opportunities are available to UK citizens within the hospitality sector. The industry employs professionals from almost 80 different fields of studies who help in handling the currency exchange services, retail travels, tour operators, hospitality, and hotel and customer management (Ahmad, Khan and Yunis, 2020). Notably, there are approximately 22,000 hotels, guesthouses, and motels in the United Kingdom that provide direct employment opportunities to about 3.2 million people making it the third-largest employment industry in the UK (Ahmad, Khan, and Yunis, 2020, p. 113). Thus, knowledge, skills, and experience are highly required by employers in the UK hospitality sector.
The UK hospitality sector experiences different challenges running from COVID-19, Brexit impact, climate, competition, and sustainability. The Brexit voting restricts the free movement of migrants into the UK, prompting staffing shortages in the sector. Restaurants, hotels, entertainment, and leisure businesses employ over 400,000 migrants (Lugosi and Jameson, 2017, p. 168). Thus, restricting their movement would cause a challenge in maintaining and recruiting new staff. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has witnessed the cancellation and indefinite postponement of events, international congress meetings, social and sports activities, adversely affecting the industry finance situations (Lugosi and Jameson, 2017).
Furthermore, the lack of predictability and magnitude of the climate changes are adversely affecting the hospitality sector. Winter periods record a low number of tourists visiting the UK, thus affecting the revenue collection (Lugosi and Jameson, 2017, p. 168). Additionally, the consumer huge need for hotels poses a challenge to the sector. The customer demands experience rather than stay in the hotel, forcing the industry to invest more in training and creating service-centered culture.
In conclusion, the United Kingdom hospitality sector is dynamic and complex. It employs a large number of people from different cultural, racial, and professional backgrounds. The sector records new technology trends that involve the use of robots, voice search and voice control, and smart room access system in customers service provision. However, the industry experiences challenges such as staff shortage following the Brexit vote, cancellation, and postponement of events and congress meetings due to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, competition, sustainability issues, and the demand for experience rather than stay by the customers challenge the hospitality sector in the UK. The industry needs to embrace technology in online travel agencies, Airbnb and Google, and sustainability for the hospitality sector future.
References List
Ahmad, W., Khan, S., and Yunis, M.S. (2020) Cash management in hospitality sector of Western Europe. Business & Economic Review, 12(2), pp. 109-128. Web.
Bore, I. et al. (2017) A systematic literature review on eWOM in the hotel industry: current trends and suggestions for future research. Hospitality & Society, 7(1), pp. 63-85. Web.
Bowie, D. et al. (2016) Hospitality marketing. London: Taylor & Francis.
Lugosi, P., and Jameson, S. (2017) Challenges in hospitality management education: perspectives from the United Kingdom. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 31, pp. 163-172. Web.
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