Essay Example Investigating the Hospitality Industry

Hospitality entails a wide category of fields in the service industry. Such services include lodging, cruise line, transportation, event planning, theme parks, and other fields within the tourism sector. Hospitality is a multibillion-dollar industry, which is principally dependent on the need for leisure and availability of disposable income. In the United Kingdom, hospitality is a large industry that contributes a significant amount of revenue to the local government. The industry is represented by hotels, pubs, restaurants, sports, betting, travel and tourism. This essay discusses the hospitality industry in the UK by offering a deep insight into the industrys scale and scope of operations, organisation and organisational structures, and classification systems used.

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Scale and Diversity of the Hospitality Industry

The scale in hospitality refers to the size of the industry, purchasing power, turnover, industrys economic value, the number of businesses and the number of persons hired in the industry. Diversity characterises the products and services offered, levels of service, current trends, business types and ownership, and customer types and necessities. In the UK, businesses in hospitality industry include hotels, restaurants, contract food service providers, membership clubs and events. Examples of events are music events and conferences. Examples of membership clubs include sports clubs, professional association clubs and employment association clubs.

The size of the hospitality industry in the UK can be measured in terms of revenues earned each year. The industry is estimated to generate fifty-five to sixty billion pounds each year in revenues (Oxford Economics, 2010). In the UK, the industry employs approximately one point seven million staffs each year. This translates to about six percent of the total working population in the nation. The nation has fifty-six thousand restaurants, fifty-nine thousand pubs and eighteen thousand contract catering outlets. The UK has forty-five thousand hotels and a hotel industry turnover of forty billion pounds annually.

The diversity of the hospitality industry in the nation can be observed by the range of food, beverages and accommodation offered by all entities. All services are of the highest standards as they are regulated by the AA Hotel Services organisation. Self-proprietors own most businesses in the UK hospitality industry. They manage and control all operations of the businesses themselves. The largest volume of customers in the hospitality industry in the UK is made up of the locals. Nevertheless, thousands of foreigners and tourists visit the hospitality businesses each year.

This chart above indicates the contribution of tourism, in the UK hospitality sector, to the national economy.

The chart above shows the statistical figures of direct employment of persons in the food and beverages section, in UK hospitality sector. These records from January 2000 to January 2014 shows a positive growth in the number of direct employments in the industry.

Products and Services Offered in Hospitality Industry

The hotels and restaurants in the UK, service a variety of dishes and beverages in the hospitality industry. The meals are either locally manufactured or processed from abroad. There is a large variety of delicacies on the menu that offers sufficient options to both local and foreign consumers. In addition, the hotels and restaurants offer accommodation or boarding services, charged on the basis of duration of stay. Accommodation services offer access to various recreational facilities like a gym, swimming pools, saunas, and steam rooms among others. Pubs and bars specialise in serving beverages, such as beer, wines and soft drinks. The drinks are either brewed locally or imported.

In the betting and gaming zone, UK has over one hundred and fifty casinos and licenced poker clubs. The nation also has numerous online casinos, which consumers can enjoy at their places of convenience. The establishments are regulated by the Gambling Commission that was enacted under the Gambling Act 2005. In travel and tourism, United Kingdom is ranked eighth among the most popular travel destinations in the world. In 2013, more than thirty-million tourist visited the UK generating a gross revenue of seventeen point two billion US dollars. Domestic tourism makes the largest component of the attained revenue from the tourism sector. In 2008, the total expenditure if domestic tourism totalled twenty-eight point eight million pounds.

Range of Products and Services Offered by Large and Small Scale Hospitality Businesses in the UK

In the UK hospitality industry, small organisations offer their products and services mostly to the locals who reside close to their location. Hotels and restaurants often offer private catering services in birthday, wedding and graduation celebrations. Their scale of operation is relatively low compared to the large organisations in the industry. Small bars and pubs also offer their services to the local residents. Small gaming and betting entities also avail their services to the locals since they are their regular customers. Large establishments like five-star hotels offer high-priced services.

Such hotels can facilitate corporate meetings, conferences and seminars. Presidential suites are exclusive for high profile visitors in the nation. All other large hospitality entities in the nation, offer their services at high costs, which generates huge revenues for the nation. Online betting and casinos can be classified as a large hospitality industry in the nation. They are accessed by millions of people around the world. According to the UK Gambling commission, in 2014 the gambling industry was valued at seven point one billion dollars. This value was not inclusive of the national lottery.

The connection between the Scale of Organisation and Diversity of Products and Services Offered

There are a close connection between the scale organisations and the diversity of products and services offered in the hospitality industry. An enhanced scale of operation demands and corresponding increment in the volume of products and services offered in the establishments. For instance, the large hospitality entities in the UK hosts foreign visitors in the nation. Such persons may not be familiar with the local UK delicacy menu. Such visitors may prefer to be served with meals that they are already used to back home.

To fulfil this demand, the hospitality industry in the UK must increase their range of services and products. In most cases, they are forced to import such factors of hospitality from foreign nations. For instance, the Wellesley Hotel in London is a five-star hotel that specialises in serving Italian food and beverages. This is a fantastic instance of how a local entity can be forced to diversify its range of products and services to fulfil the needs of the both local and international clientele. This connection between scale and diversity applies to other organisations in the hospitality industry.

The Connection Will Have an Ongoing Concern

The connection between the scope and diversity of goods and services will remain the same in the years to come. This is because, past statistics has indicated that the hospitality industry in the UK has a positive growth. For instance, in 2015 the hotels in the UK are enjoying a travel backdrop and improving economy. The two factors, among others, have encouraged numerous international travellers to have vacations in the UK. The business in hotels and other entities in the hospitality industry is performing well. The positive trend in the hospitality industry is expected to remain the same or improve in 2016.

Description of Organisation and Structure of Hospitality Businesses

Organisation structure defines the relationship between persons and different departments in the organisation. It is a system of work relationship that coordinates all employees to attain the institutions goals. Organisation revolves around operational areas such as food preparation, accommodation services, and food or beverage services. The structures mean the hierarchy levels of management within the organisation. Such are inclusive of the profile of employees, gender and age. Also, it entails the roles of the managing supervisor and the responsibilities of other staffs in the organisation.

Examples of Structures in the UK Hospitality Industry

Hotels provide food, beverages and accommodation services. Rooms are washed daily and there is a twenty-four-hour attendant station at the front desk. Resorts offers entertainment facilities, food and beverages. Restaurants in the UK are simple family run entities with a serene, friendly atmosphere. Fast food outlets are relatively expensive and provide limited types of food (HSC, 2015). Catering services offer food and beverages in privatised venues. Clubs, betting and gaming entities in the UK work closely together. They offer meals, beverages, bands, live shows, gaming facilities and televised gaming events. Travel and tourism entities offer recreation activities like amusement parks, sporting events, beaches, zoos and cultural heritage landmarks.

Main Differences between the Structures

The main difference in the structure of different sectors of the hospitality industry can be evidenced through the functions of the department personnel. To portray the difference in structures of two related sectors in the hospital industry, we can consider the hotel and catering services sector. Both of these departments offer food and beverages to local and international customers. Nevertheless, while hotels offer their services in a centralised location, catering service corporations take the meals to privatised locations chosen by their customers. As much as both entities contribute to the economy of the nation through the hospitality industry, the roles and functions of the staff members is different.

Different Types of Classifications Systems Used in the Hospitality Industry

Organisations in the UK are classified depending on their size, legal status, and sector among others. There are different forms of classification in the UK hospitality industry. The classification is different in various sectors of the industry. In the UK, hotels are classified as business hotels, airport hotels, extended services hotels and conference centres. Restaurants are classified as dining restaurant, full-service restaurant, family style restaurant and casual dining restaurant. Beers and pubs are categorised as those that serve beer, those that serve soft drinks, milk bars, wine pubs and bars, among others.

In the catering services sector in the nation, the entities are classified as mobile catering, take home orders, business catering, door to door catering, business catering and special events catering. The membership clubs in the UK are categorised as sports clubs, country clubs, and private membership clubs among others. In the tourism and travelling sector, attraction sites include museums, festivals, castles, beaches, aquariums, recreational parks among others. There are different systems in each sector so that the concerned entities can specialise in offering specific goods, services and other functions to the consumers.

The Need, Uses and Advantages of Classification Systems

There are several reasons why organisations should be classified. The reasons are beneficial to both the entities and the government. Classification of businesses aids the UK government in revenue collection, equitable distribution of natural and economic resources and GDP calculation. This enables the government to determine the scale of the contribution of each sector to the national economy. There are several advantages...