The Concept of Tourism and Tourism Industry

Tourism since the very beginning of life, has fascinated man. Travel and tourism have been important social activities of human from time immemorial. The desire to explore new places with in one’s own country or outside and seek a change of environment & experience has been experienced from ancient times.

The tourism industry get its inspiration from man’s motivation to travel, in earlier time people travelled to survive and later to establish trade links with each other . As man evolved and become more aware, he started travelling to explore the world, domestication of animal which were used as the mode of transport till the invention of wheels made the travel easier and faster. A detail of evolution and growth of tourism and hospitality industry is given in this unit to make understand how tourism and hospitality leads the seeds of the Hotel industry.

Tourism is one of the world’s most rapidly growing industries. Much of its growth is due to higher disposable incomes, increased leisure time and falling costs of travel. With the invention of rail transport and air transport besides road and sea transport, hotel industry developed from in to present day hotels, it is the part of the hospitality industry which is among the oldest commercial activities in the world. It is actually the integral part of travel and tourism industries which provides a wide range of travel related services, such as fooding, lodging , mode of transport etc. This unit has tried to explain the relation between tourism and hotel industries their evolution and growth till present day situation.

A hospitality industry is continuously growing and developing so more and more hotels are offering every possible services to the guest to make him comfortable and enjoying the experience of staying in the hotel by catering all their needs. With the growing competition, hoteliers have come up with specialty products or services to target their clientele and develop a market for themselves. Hotels can be categorized on the basis of star rating, services they offer, size, their location, target audience, level of services, duration of guest stay to provide their guest an indication of their profile and what to expect from them. With the development of hotel industry several international chains or group also came into existence a detail of few is given in this unit.

Hospitality Industry

Hospitality industry is a wider term for a broad variety of service industry including hotels, restaurants, catering establishments and many more. This industry is very diverse and global and catering to all theneeds of travel related activity it is expected to be US$3.5 trillion industry in world economy. Hospitality refers to the relationship between guest and host; it also refers to being hospitable. Some define hospitality as “the business of helping people to feel welcome and relaxed and to enjoy themselves” (Discover Hospitality, 2015, ) Hospitality is treating people like you would want to treated when you are travelling in other words it means making a tourist feels totally welcome not only as your guest but also as the guest of the entire family i.e. family of hotel.

Hospitality can be defined as deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and public i.e. the business of making and keeping friends and promoting an atmosphere of better understanding the word hospitality is derived from Latin word “Hospitalitias”. Reception, welcome and in general the treatment of guest or a stranger in the most friendly manner is hospitality. In most of the countries all over the world guest is received with a great amount of courtesy and warmth is provided with entertainment. The basic concept of hospitality is to make the guest feels that they are always welcome”’.

Although the basic concept of hospitality has remained the same but with the passage of time and development of technology and science, the need and wants of travelers have changed greatly thus providing numerous services and facilities in terms of accommodation and other basic needs such as food and beverages. Simply putting, the hospitality industry is the combination of the accommodation and food and beverage groupings, collectively making up the largest segment of the industry.

The hospitality industry is a part of a larger enterprise known as travel and tourism industry. The travel and tourism industry is a vast group of business with one goal in common : providing necessary or desired services to travelers. Advances in transportation enabled more people to travel greater distances at less cost spreading tourism across the globe. From modest origins, hospitality and tourism rose to become two of the largest worldwide industries.

The origin and growth of hospitality industry is direct outcome of travel and tourism. Warriors or traders were the earlytravelers but they did not have hotels to accommodate them. The warriors used tents but the merchants seeking to trade tools, clothing and livestock, traded merchandise for lodging. The inns offered little more than a cot or a bench in the corner of a room or a stable which were unhygienic too. Most of them were private residences of the local residents that offered temporary residence or lodging to strangers runed by husband and wife team who provided large halls to travelers where they were supposed to make their own bed and sleep on the floor guests used to stayed in large communal rooms where sanitation and privacy were non-existent. After the establishment of money in 6th century BC, in keeping was one of the first commercial enterprises and hospitality was one of the first services for which money was exchanged.

Throughout the world they were known by different names such as: Dharamshalas and Sarai in India, ryokans in Japan, paradors in Spain, pousadas in Portugal, coffee house in America, taverens and inns in Europe, cabarets and hostelries in France, mansionis and hospital in Switzerland, phatnal in Greece and relay house in China.

In the third century AD, Roman Empire developed an extensive system of brick paved roads throughout Europe and Asia minor. Small road side lodges were constructed due to increase in the road transport. During the Industrial Revolution in 1700s, the Europeans began to combine food and beverage service with lodging. No attention was given to sanitation and beds as well as rooms had to be shared with other travelers. These early European inns were unsuitable for aristocrats. To accommodate wealthy travelers, luxurious structures were erected. These offered private rooms, individual sanitation and all comforts of a European castle. These elegant new establishments later adopted the French name for mansion, ‘hotel’. The rates they charged were very high and well beyond the means of common citizens.

Tourism Industry

To understand the origin and development of Hotel industry we need to understand its two pillars – Hospitality industry and Tourism Industry.

Before going through the details of the growth of the hotel industry let’s look back and try to understand its origin i.e. from why people travel or undertake tourism, let’s understand what this term means- The word tour is derived from the Latin word tornus meaning a tool for making a circle. Tourism in simple is defined as the movement of people from their normal place of residence to another place with the intention to return for a minimum period of twenty four hours to a maximum of six months for the sole purpose of leisure and pleasure.

It can also be defined as “It is the movement of people from their normal place of residence & work for a period of not less than 24 hours and not more than 1 year”. (according to W.T.O.) According to Henniker & Kroff tourism is “The sum of phenomenon and relationship arising from the travel as it does not lead to permanent residence and is not connected to any earning activity.” The League of Nations in 1937 defined tourism as “Tourism covers the social activity of those who travel for a period of 24 hours or more in a country other than the one the person usually lives in.”