The faculty experts at the Kendall College School of Hospitality Management recently released its trends outlook for the hospitality industry for 2014. The hospitalitymanagement program is highly regarded in the Chicago for preparing students for careers in the hospitality industry. With the combined collaboration of the entire faculty from the hospitality program, they were able to come with this infographic that provides a lot of insight into the top trends within the hospitality industry for the upcoming year. I’ve highlighted some of the more interesting findings below:
- According to the faculty experts, the #1 hospitality trend for 2014 is the demand for international knowledge. Global travel to the U.S. will continue to see strong growth according to The U.S. Department of Commerce which projects an annual growth rate of 3.7-4.2% which will equal roughly 84.6 million visitors. This shows a need for hospitality providers to have more international knowledge and to train their staff’s accordingly.
- Digital Rankings and Referrals mean business. User generated online ratings means more to the hospitality industry then it ever has before. Digital review sites like Yelp, and TripAdvisor are viewed as extremely important by consumers. The power of what’s posted on the web and digital word of mouth can severely impact businesses revenue for better or for worse.
- Sustainability is the new standard within the hotel industry. 62% of travelers expect hotels to have some sort of environmental program in place. 84% of travelers do not see these practices as having a negative impact on comfort or luxury. In the U.S. alone hotels represent 5 billion feet of space that uses $4billion in energy use. The need for sustainability and green practices in this industry can have a major impact.
- Room Service is being reinvented. With room service revenue drastically decreasing and some hotels starting to forgo the service altogether, hotels are forced to become creative with the way they provide room service these days with well known chef names, digital in room dining menus with online ordering.
- Jobs within the hospitality industry are in demand. In 2012, travel and tourism employed more than 14.6 million people. That’s 1 in every 8 jobs U.S. jobs. There’s an average of 55,000 new jobs added per month since Jan.2013 compared to an average of 30,000 per month in 2012. The food and beverage sector saw the most growth adding 75,000 new jobs in June 2013.
Matt Zajechowski is a digital marketing manager at Digital Third Coast. Connect with him on Google+ and Twitter.
