While many business niches are composed of only a handful of different businesses, the hospitality industry applies to nearly any company that deals with customer satisfaction and is focused on meeting leisurely needs rather than basic ones.
With the broadness of this industry, some defining aspects are important to understanding. The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within service industry that includes lodging, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise line, and additional fields within the tourism industry.
A hospitality unit such as a restaurant, hotel, or an amusem*nt park consists of units such as facility maintenance and direct operations (servers, housekeepers, porters, kitchen workers, bartenders, management, marketing, and human resources, etc.).
The hospitality industry is a multibillion-dollar industry that depends on the availability of leisure time, disposable income, and complete customer satisfaction. There are four segments of the hospitality industry: Food and beverages, Travel and Tourism, lodging, and recreation.
1. Food and Beverages
The food and beverage sector which is professionally known by its initials as F&B is the largest segment of the hospitality industry.
The F&B industry is estimated to provide 50% of all meals eaten in the US today. It comprises of establishments primarily engaged in preparing meals, snacks, and beverages for immediate consumption on and off the premises. When a restaurant is part of a hotel, services it renders can enhance the guest experience by providing excellent food and first-class customer service.
It can symbiotically function as part of other businesses, such as in bowling alleys or movie theaters.
2. Travel and Tourism
Travel and tourism deal with services related to moving people from place to place. Buses, cabs, planes, ships, trains and so on are all part of the travel industry.
Leisure travel is when a person spends money on lodging, food, and recreation while taking a vacation trip, and business travel is when a person travels for work and spends money on lodging and food. Some people also spend on recreation while on a business travel.
The major function of the tourism is to encourage people to travel. When people travel, either for business or leisure, they spend money on hospitality.
3. Lodging
Lodging means accommodation for a period or a place to sleep for one or more nights. Fancy hotels, youth hostels, elder hostels, campgrounds, motels and other businesses that provide a place for people to sleep overnight are all in the lodging industry.
Lodging businesses markets to other market segments such as business travelers, leisure travelers, long-stay travelers, budget travelers, and special travelers like people working with the government, airlines, and military.
4. Recreation
Recreation is any activity that people do for rest, relaxation, and enjoyment. The goal of recreation is to refresh a person's body and mind. Any business that provides activities for rest, relaxation and enjoyment, to refresh a person's body and mind is in the recreation business.
Entertainment businesses which provide shows such as movie or theater, attractions which are places of special interest of visits such as zoos and museums, spectator sports and participatory sports are all parts of the recreation business.
