Hospitality Consumer Wants the Consumers Essay

Pubs on account of operating costs, food prices, and the increase in minimum wages have therefore changed to the tenanted model. Some regulations have also curbed customer choice like ban on smoking in public places, and other interventions on customer freedom have resulted in the closure of two thousand pubs. Changing customer habits have resulted in the decline of the UK restaurant by three percent as a result of poor consumer spending. (Deoitte, 2011)

In England these different entities are representative of the fact that consumers have grown in variety and as well have begun to explore all that the hospitality industry has to offer. Apart from the changes in the eating habits of the natives, the demands from the tourists, and the peculiar tourist out for gastronomic experience has given birth to a new industry -- Gastronomic tour. There are many types of consumers of hospitality including the current concept of 'food tourism'. Today food and gastronomy are important to the consumer and therefore the emerging trend is to provide good and well prepared food as part of their overall experience and a part of hospitality. Thus business now use the interest in food as a means of getting at a new niche market, and this is important to the UK industry because of the cuisine demand and changes have thus come about in restaurants and hotels. (Hjalager; Richards, 2002, p. 115)

Customers prefer new locations and therefore customers now expect food services at places like malls, shopping centers, leisure centers and airports. This trend is seen to grow internationally with the British brands like Wagamama, La Tasca and Yo Sushi, have begun expanding internationally. (Deoitte, 2011)

To conclude it can be said that the demands for hospitality has changed with new methods of consumption and perception of services. Like wise the industry has also changed to introduce new concepts of service and ambience.

References

Bowers, Simon. 2011. Mayfair Hotel: RBS Sells Top Mayfair Hotel to Indian

Billionaire. The Guardian, p. 6.

Deoitte. 2011. Issues and Trends. [Online] Available at:

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/thl/licensed-retail/04b2dd45801b1210VgnVCM200000bb42f00aRCRD.htm

[Accessed 22 January 2011]

Hospitality trends. 2010. Top 10 Beverage trends 2010. [Online] Available at:

http://www.htrends.com/trends-detail-sid-48260-t-Top____Beverage_Trends____.html [Accessed 22 January 2011]

Hjalager, Anne-Mette; Richards, Greg. 2002. Tourism and Gastronomy. Routledge:

London.

McCabe, Scott. 2008. Marketing communications in tourism and hospitality: concepts, strategies and cases. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Warde, Alan; Martens, Lydia. 2000. Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption,

and Pleasure. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England.