Customer Reviews

Hospitality 2010: The Future of Hospitality and Travel

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There are many different kinds of books about future trends. Some talk about the future as some radical break from the present. These usually become dated quickly as the future ends up being a lot more like the present than the prediction. Think about the 1960s predictions of flying cars or world wide collapse by the 1980s. We are still driving internal combustion cars on highways and while there are terrible tragedies such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, and the Sudan, most people in the world are living better lives than their ancestors.

Other books on predictions look carefully at the present and what trends seem to be emerging. They then look at what factors might prefer one trend over the other and then make their predictions. Their predictions tend to be more near term than the books on vast and radical change. This book is of this kind.

The book consists of nine easy to read and informative chapters in two parts and five very helpful appendices as well as an index. The first part sets up the context for hospitality and is called "Common Concerns for the Hospitality Industry". The second part goes through the industry sector by sector and is sensibly called "Sector Forecasts".

The first chapter sets the stage by looking at the present situation in the world (the book looks at the global trends in hospitality). The reader gets a number of lists of countries on various trends in political stability, internal population, environment, education, crime, and more. The second chapter explains why these factors look positive for the future take off in hospitality. The authors see a coming strong world wide economic recovery with hospitality being one of the fastest growing sectors. They also see the growing use of Internet as a support for the growth of travel rather than people staying at home and communicating over the web instead. They believe the greater opportunities for global commerce through the Web will require more skilled workers who will have to be outsourced around the globe and will require travel to support more global operations.

Chapter three provides the reader with trends in security and business considerations in the age of terror. Security issues for persons and data will continue to grow. Most of their information is sound and practical. However, they saw oil staying stable at $25-$28 per barrel and prices above that as unsustainable. Oops.

Chapter four begins the sector forecasts. Chapter four talks about the expansion of tourism and chapter five is about business travel - MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions. Chapter six discusses the huge growth in the cruise industry while chapter seven discusses the troubled times ahead for the airlines. Chapter eight is of most interest to me because my company sells pre-screening assessment services in the hospitality industry and primarily to restaurants (yes, email me!). The news is pretty good for restaurants if you are going big or staying small. They see the mid-sized chains getting squeezed out. We shall see. The last chapter takes a brief look at decades to come.

Appendix A is an excellent look at 52 trends shaping the future. This deserves close reading and some time thinking about what they authors have to offer here. Appendix B provides some criteria you can use to evaluate national stability in any market you are thinking of. Appendix C lists Hospitality Associations and Publications with contact info - very valuable. And Appendix D lists college programs in hospitality with websites. Also useful.

These books never get the future right. They aren't really supposed to. What they are for is to help you see the present a little more clearly and maybe a present wave you can hop on to ride for awhile and to avoid getting swamped by another wave you didn't see.