Historical Background of the Hospitality Industry ...
Introduction
The Indian tourism and hospitality
industry has emerged as one of the key drivers of growth among the services
sector in India. The second-largest sub-segment of the services sector
comprising trade, repair services, hotels and restaurants contributed nearly
US$ 295.7 billion or 19.2 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
2015-16, while growing at 8.9 per cent year-on-year. Tourism in India has
significant potential considering the rich cultural and historical heritage,
variety in ecology, terrains and places of natural beauty spread across the
country. Tourism is also a potentially large employment generator besides being
a significant source of foreign exchange for the country.
The industry is expected to
generate 13.45 million jobs! across sub-segments such as Restaurants (10.49
million jobs), Hotels (2.3 million jobs) and Travel Agents/Tour Operators (0.66
million). The Ministry of Tourism plans to help the industry meet the
increasing demand of skilled and trained manpower by providing hospitality
education to students as well as certifying and upgrading skills of existing
service providers.
India has moved up 13 positions to
52nd rank from 65th in Tourism & Travel competitive index@. Tourism
Australia expects Indian tourist’s arrivals in Australia to increase 12 per
cent year-on-year to reach 245,000 visitors during FY 2015-16, thus making
India the eighth largest source market for tourism in Australia.
Historical Background of the
Hospitality Industry
The hospitality industry is a
mammoth of a sector raking in trillions of US Dollar in revenue each year. And, travellers always seek
hospitable places to kick back and relax, away from all the hustle and bustle
of everyday routine. Although most modern hotels feature
clients`experience and conveniences such as television, minibars, en-suite
showers, they fulfill the same purpose of ancient inns but with improved
services.
(Ranch Built in 1896- Bow
Valley Ranche)
Here is a quick tour of the history
of hospitality industry. Journey to the memory lane for
hospitality industry
Early Hospitality
The industry itself dates back to
the ancient Greek times and even before that. In this epoch, the hoteliers were
always hospitable as they felt it was in accordance to their well-being and
those of others. It was around 40 BC according to
experts when hospitality services for social and religious gatherings were
quite a common phenomenon. It was about this time that Greeks
came up with thermal baths that were designed for recuperation and relaxation.
These thermal baths are said to be
the origin of what we know as modern day Spa.
There are enough evidences now that
historical background of hospitality industry will pull us back to pre-historic
times. Then came the Romans who provided
accommodation for travellers on government premises. Here, comfort and
entertainment was the name of the game.
(Exotic Menu as a part of ancient
Roman hospitality)
When the Roman used to travel,
they
sought pleasure leading to development of early inns.
Medieval Period for
hospitality industry, this was the era that started with
English travel and excursions when they built inns as their private residences. The nobility use to stay in the
monasteries. Then came into existence the
caravanserais that provided resting destinations for the caravans along Middle
Eastern routes along with the monasteries and abbeys, these places became the first
establishment to offer refuge to travellers. The Persians along the caravan
routedeveloped inns and post houses, these were used to provide accommodations
and nourishments to both soldiers and couriers. By Marco Polo’s time of his journey
to the Far East, he estimated that there were 10,000 such post houses located
25 miles apart. He described them as “suitable for a King” hence giving a great
significance to always making your visitor want more after your service.
Marco Polo initiated through his
memoirs what we know as travel diaries of today.
His book helped a lot others to
explore the world. This gave rise to what we know as
modern day customer service as an essence of hospitality. One of our other article discusses
more about service in hospitality industry .
In 1282 in Florence Italy, the
great innkeepers integrated an association with an aim of turning hospitality
into a business in its own right.They had to garner a permit to
import and sell wine which later led to the spread of hospitality elsewhere.
The New World of
hospitality-
Renaissance and the French Revolution
Then comes the period of
16th century, when the demand of the inns and taverns increased multiple
folds.The first hospitality establishment
as a hotel was built around this time. It was named Hotel de Henry or Hotel de
Salm and was built around 1788 (names have changed over the years).
However, the first hotel tag
goes
to Koshu Nishiyama Hotel in
Japan which is said to be over 1300 years old.
The hotel is still accepting guest
and is run by the same family for several generations. These hotels created the trend and
world followed the model and started creating eateries and places to rest and
sleep. Like England and New York made
taverns, Pennsylvania made inns, and the Southern colonies formed ordinaries. The French revolution changed the
features of culinary and future of the hospitality industry.
Nineteenth Century and
twentieth century for hospitality and tourism
We saw the beginning of luxury
Hotels and resorts from the nineteenth century. London had its hotel named as Savoy
Hotel and New York had Delmonico. These created stellar luxury and service
standards. What followed was a flurry of great
hotels, a lot of which are still creating new standards of hospitality.
These largest hotel
chains seem to have answered well the ‘what is hospitality industry’
question over the years. The aspects and features of the
hospitality industry have undergone massive transformation over time since the
Colonial Period. There were two world wars that
disrupted the growth of hospitality in twentieth century.
What ensued after the world wars
was a growth in dark tourism or ‘Thanatourism’.
History of Hospitality industry
also shows us some of the darker sides as the industry goes on to absorb all
shades of tourism. Hospitality industry as an
organized industry was formed in the 1950s or 1960s when a proper structure was
formed. The industrial revolution which
began in the 1970s facilitated the construction of hotels in Europe, England,
and America with the French and Italian veterans following suit. Here’s a look of the Meadow’s club
built in the early 1930’s as the first Hotel and Casino is Las Vegas.
(First Casino Hotel in Las Vegas)
Modern Hospitality industry
Nowadays, architects, engineers,
designers, developers, and managers are conscious of the taste of guest
according to their wishes. Today’s hoteliers analyse new
trends to define better criteria and provide modern standards to improve the
quality of life in hotels. The industry has developed a lot.
The casual dining has seen growth, as well as the chain of hotels has
increased. With brands like Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Ritz etc. the
hospitality industry seems to be doing quite well. Thousands of hotel rooms are in
pipeline and transportation for travel has taken a leap into the future. The tourism industry has a new era
of better growth and innovation.
With the future growth in vicinity
and greater interest of people in travelling, future of hospitality
industry looks bright.