Hospitality and Related Services - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 124

INTRODUCTION

A is noted in Chapter 2, providing overnight accommodations for travelers goes back into antiquity;

it is the world's oldest commercial business. Guest rooms were first part of private dwellings.
Then came caravansaries and guest quarters provided in monasteries. Today, lodging and food service
activities are enormous in economic importance. Many lodging places provide meeting rooms,
convention facilities and services, restaurants, bars, entertainment, gift shops, gaming, health clubs,
and other activities and facilities. Figure 6.1 extracts the operating sectors from Figure 1.2 and shows
that accommodations and food services are critical sectors of the tourism industry. See Figure 6.2 for
the structure of the accommodations industry. In this chapter, we examine this industry as well as the
even larger food service business, meetings and conventions, and related services.

THE LODGING INDUSTRY

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that the world hotel room
inventory grows by about 2.5 percent a year. Occupancy rates vary, but they average about 65 percent
overall in a normal year. Such places as London, Beijing, New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, the
Caribbean area, and the city of Las Vegas are noted for higher occupancy rates.
World hotel accommodations are heavily concentrated in Europe and North America, with Europe
accounting for 44.7 percent of the world s room supply and the United States accounting for 27

percent, for a total of over 71 percent. Asia and the Paci c region account for 13.9 percent, Africa 3.1
percent, and the Middle East 1.5 percent. The most growth is taking place in the Asia-Paci c region.
According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA), the U.S. lodging industry
(which includes hotels, motels, suites, and resort properties) recorded a pro table year in 2009. The
industry grossed $16.0 billion in pretax pro ts in 2009, down considerably from $25.8 billion in 2008,

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F

Trav el Trad e
Sec tor

Figure 6.1 Operating sectors of

the tourism industry: accommodation
and food services.