Hospitality sector

Employment in hospitality grew during the last decade and is predicted to grow further through to 2010. Sector information For several years the hospitality sector has experienced chronic recruitment difficulties and has a high proportion of hard-to-fill vacancies. Sector information The south west is forecast to have the largest percentage increase in employment in the hospitality sector. Regional dimension Nearly 40% of jobs in the hospitality sector are classified as elementary occupations. Occupations The current make-up of the industry's workforce points to a predominance of young and female workers. Equal opportunities Qualifications, skills gaps and training are major issues within the sector. Education and training Workforce development is a major issue for the hospitality sector. Discussion

Sector information This contains an overview of the sector as a whole, details future trends in employment together with skill gaps and workforce development issues. The hospitality sector includes employment in a wide variety of businesses based around the provision of food, drink and accommodation thus ranging from hotels to night clubs. There are however five main categories within the sector: restaurants pubs, clubs and bars hotels contract catering hospitality services (which includes hospitality occupations in non-hospitality businesses e.g. catering staff in a hospital) The relevant former National Training Organisation (NTO) was the Hospitality Training Foundation which is now combining with the former Travel, Tourism and Events NTO to develop a Sector Skills Council for Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism. This section deals with future trends in the hospitality sector. For information about future trends in Travel, Tourism and Events see the Labour Market Review 2003 for the Travel Services, Tourism and Events Industry (2003).

Hotel and catering industry profile Share of UK output Total employment Share of total employment Gender split (male:female) Part-tiem share Self-employment share 2.4% 1,860,000 6.2% 41:59 54% 7%

Future employment in the hospitality sector Different sources estimate that the hospitality sector employs approximately 1.6 to 1.8 million people. Between 1991 and 2001 employment grew by between 1-1.5% per annum. Employment in the sector is forecast to grow by a further 4% through to 2010. In the short-term employment levels are expected to decline but will be offset by the increases in the second half of the decade. However, some forecasts within the sector are for even stronger growth.

Future trends in hospitality The hospitality sector continues to experience change and priorities for the industry include: improving the image of the industry as an employer increasing employer engagement in relevant learning and development programmes ensuring greater uptake of industry recognised qualifications promoting career opportunities into and within the sector Action to achieve these aims includes: more imaginative and attractive remuneration packages more comprehensive and systematic training linked to qualifications and rewards for learning achievement, supported by good mentoring greater practical content in both HE and FE courses

more focus on innovation in HE provision/delivery. provision at all levels to include broader skills such as customer service, and key and basic skills where relevant more effective maintenance of the relevance of vocational qualifications to employers greater support for qualifications by employers better employer understanding of national qualifications as skills and competence benchmarks which aid recruitment more flexible and cost effective access to learning and qualifications to increase the opportunity for trainees to develop their employability, and provide the base for progression to higher level skills greater collaboration between work-based and education-based training providers encouragement of employer networks and clusters, such as tourism clusters through which skills development can be promoted provision by employers and learning providers of work placements that give structured experience, accredited where possible, so that young people develop a positive impression of the industry, and thus increase recruitment potential International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research at Bournemouth University has details of a wide variety of local, national and international research undertaken by the centre. A list of their research is available on the website by clicking on the world map. Equal opportunities Key information on equal opportunity issues specific to the sector. The industry argues that its wide range of job opportunities and flexible working patterns provide opportunities for many groups of people. As a result it can offer jobs and careers to young offenders, long term unemployed, adult returners, lone parents and ethnic minorities. Gender More women than men work in the hospitality sector. In 2000, women accounted for 67% of the total workforce, but this ranges from a very narrow majority in restaurants to a large over-representation of women in hospitality services. The percentage of women employees in the different hospitality sub-sectors is as follows restaurants 51% pubs, clubs and bars 62% hotels 61% contract catering 66% hospitality services 82%

Employment levels by gender and status in hotels and catering, 2002-2012 Age There are interesting issues about the age structure of the hospitality workforce which include: 40% of the workforce is below 25, an increase of 10% over 1999 and high in comparison with the national average of 14% the industry has a lower than average proportion of prime-aged workers, defined as those aged between 25 and 59 19% of workers in the industry are in their 30s, down from 20% in 1999 (compared to 27.4% across all industries) 13% of employees in hospitality are in their 40s, down from 18% in 1999 (compared to 23.1% across all industries) Since 2001 there has been some change with an increase in employees aged 30-49, but there is considerable variation across sectors e.g. 25% of pub employees are under 19 and 20% of contract catering employees are over 50. Ethnicity Around 8% of employees in hospitality are from minority ethnic groups, suggesting that there is no significant under-representation within the sector. However, there are very considerable variations between the representation of people from minority ethnic groups within different sub-sectors and occupations. People from minority ethnic groups comprise: 16% of restaurant and catering manager 13% of chefs and cooks 2% of bar staff 2% of hotel and accommodation managers 1% of publicans

IT solutions for hotels, restaurants and whole Hospitality sector

The hospitality industry is one of the main engines for growth in the UK economy driven by the UK Tourism industry and the robust business outlook. For example, the Internet has made it possible for customers to search hotels, and make comparisons on price and service and then to confirm bookings online. Online business strategy is becoming a popular key word amongst the Hospitality sector. More tourists, whether from home or abroad, are booking independently. The way the sector does business is changing. The hotel sub-sector is increasingly dependent on information technology. IT is used for a variety of functions to facilitate business operations from reservations to cook chill processes. Many hotels now offer

e-mail, Internet and video conferencing facilities to guests. Latest developments include broadband and wireless networking available in rooms for suitably equipped lap-tops. Sector trends and issues
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Hotel groups are looking at guest profiling leading to frequent lodger programmes allowing guests to take their individual preferences from hotel to hotel with a single guest profile number. Hotels in particular are now developing e-marketing strategies both to develop new business and to retain repeat customers. There will be a merging of back office, administration and accounting data with front office customer care and guest histories. All this will link up with reservations, distribution, procurement and supply chain management. Big changes are coming in the way payments are accepted by credit and debit cards. The new system is called chip and PIN and it's already in effect starting this year 2005. Increasing numbers of restaurants are turning to more technological methods to speed up the process. Hand-held terminals are one way of doing this. Consider this; what technology do your guests look for when they arrive in their hotel room? What do they need? What would they like? And what could they do without? For eg, simply everything the business guest requires has a technology implication! From Wireless Broadband TV, Printers and Fax to access internet through TV! Online marketing strategies including E-commerce development portal and online application development to facilitate and promote service offerings, hotel bookings online through company website. Investing in Property Management Systems, a computer system that links together all the different parts of the hotel. It can be used to gather information from all those systems, such as the phones, restaurant and bar, to calculate guests bills and monitor stock and even staff performance.

Structure of the sector Sub-sector Hospitality Travel and Tourism Gambling and Lotteries Conservation and Guiding TOTAL Estimated no of enterprises 35 830 2 850 Estimated no of employees 477 800 39 700

850

20 500

900 40 430

30 300 568 300