Segments the Hospitality Industry

Hospitality Industry: Segments

Segments: Hospitality Industry

Segments in the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is a multi-billion dollar, complex industry covering a wide range of jobs, economic brackets, activities, and locations. It comprises of five major segments: lodging, food service, tourism, meeting and event planning, and the cruise line industry. These five segments and the employment prospects that they offer hospitality graduates have been discussed in the subsequent subsections. We begin with the largest segment in the industry --food service.

The food service industry, also known as the food and beverage industry, covers the various business segments that prepare food for customers. It is estimated that 50% of all meals eaten in the United States on any given day comes from the foodservice industry (BLS, 2012). The industry can be categorized into three: commercial food service, institutional food service, and food service within a consumer business. Commercial food service businesses are those that compete for customers and are driven by the profit-maximizing motive. They include full-service restaurants, quick-service restaurants, and catering businesses. Institutional food service joints, unlike the commercial joints, provide food and drinks to customers within an institution such as a factory, military base, hospital, or school. Finally, there is the foodservice within a consumer business. These are food and beverage businesses located within customer business areas such as train stations, airports, parks, museums, sports arenas, movie theatres and so on. They can be either quick-service or full-service businesses. It is estimated that with so many people opting to dine out as opposed to buying groceries to cook for themselves, the food service industry continues to offer promising opportunities for food entrepreneurs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the foodservice segment currently employs over 10 million staff, providing promising opportunities for graduates to take up careers in restaurant management, food service management and other managerial-level roles (BLS, 2012).

Second in line is the lodging industry, popularly known as the accommodation industry. This segment covers businesses that provide people with a place to sleep at night. They could be anything from a highway side motel, to a campground, an elder hostel, a youth hostel, or a fancy hotel. They can be categorized into four: institutional housing, specialty accommodations, limited service providers, and full service hotels, and serve a wide array of market segments including special travelers, long-stay travelers, budget travelers, leisure travelers, meeting attendees, and business travelers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the lodging industry in the U.S. employs approximately 1.5 million people, and the figure is expected to rise as the demand for accommodation rises owing to globalization and liberalization, both of which are deemed to increase the rates of both leisure and business travel to the United States (BLS, 2012). One of the most promising careers that a hospitality graduate could pursue in this segment is lodging management.

The third most prominent segment in the hospitality industry is the tourism and travel segment. This segment is concerned with providing business and leisure travelers with services that promote vacation and travel. It covers travel agencies, visitors' bureaus, convention planners, cruise companies, tour operators, and travel agencies. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) estimates that the tourism segment of the hospitality industry employs approximately 1.86 million employees, and directly supports over 7.9 million travel and tours jobs (AHLA, 2013). These figures can be expected to go up over the coming years as the global economy recovers from the effects of the economic crisis, and as globalization and trade liberalization open the United States up for increases in leisure and business travels from foreigners. Hospitality graduates wishing to venture into this segment could take up careers in travel and tours management, which open up opportunities for positions in tour management, sales management, and as travel agents.