This trend is closely associated with another, dubbed “Work hard, play hard.” In fact, Benchmark notes that a bigger slice of meeting and convention budgets is being allocated to leisure and team building events. Though companies are still demanding more from their employees, they are also recognizing the need to balance this with fun activities like a round of golf, a spa visit, or even a cooking class. Microsoft, Westin, KLM, eBay and many other corporations are sending their employees to the kitchen.

A simple recipe for cooperation

Team building sessions can take a variety of forms, but they are often associated with physical activities, sometimes extreme in nature, that are not necessarily suitable for all employees. Golf, rafting, treasure hunts and role-playing are just some of the ways in which employees can accomplish something together outside the workplace. Unlike golf, which is appeals primarily to golfers, and rafting, which is too extreme for some people, cooking lessons are a simple, relatively inexpensive and highly accessible way to get people together. Furthermore, culinary activities focus more on cooperation than other, more competitive, activities do.

Delicious benefits

Like any organization, a cooking class follows a system: to succeed, participants must set deadlines, use limited resources, make decisions and cooperate. In the kitchen, individuals assigned different roles are put into groups to create a product, in this case, a meal. Participants share responsibilities and learn to appreciate the individual skills of each team member as they work towards a common goal: grilled lamb, sautéed mushrooms or a rich chocolate sauce!

Events can be customized to meet the goals and budget of each specific group. Another very popular option is to have the experience include an opportunity to work with a renowned chef.

Cooking is an enjoyable activity that everyone is capable of doing. In fact, one’s prowess in the kitchen is in no way related to one’s tasks in the workplace; roles are sometimes reversed, stereotypes fall by the wayside and a new group dynamic can emerge. Since the kitchen is a familiar environment and food is a universal language, people who cook together can become closer in a way that endures beyond the team building exercise itself.

The secret to success: Planning and consistency

• To be successful, a team building activity begins long before the session itself, which must be well planned. Ideally, a team of employees should be formed to organize the event.
• For maximum effect, the activity should be consistent with the company’s overall organization. In other words, its corporate culture, values and internal practices should underscore the team concept on an ongoing basis.
• Participation will be greater if the team building activity is organized around a business goal that all employees can contribute to.
• To take full advantage of the potential of team building, organizers must set real work goals, determine how the learning will be integrated into the workplace and decide what type of follow-up will be done, all before the activity even takes place. Doing so will lead to better planning.

A poorly planned team building activity can lead to negative consequences. This can happen if the event does not complement the company’s usual work environment. For example, if the company normally rewards individual efforts, an activity to build team spirit will likely have no impact and even strike employees as a waste of time. Similarly, if an event lacks follow-up or is not related to concrete, consistent actions in the workplace, it could well damage employee confidence, motivation and productivity.

Some examples

• CEO Chef is first and foremost a team building company. Following a short introduction and some safety tips, participants form teams and name a leader. Then the workshop leader presents the “culinary challenge.” Teams must prepare the food according to the instructions (which are often far from complete). The goal is team work, creativity and trusting others. After the cooking, the workshop leader leads a discussion about the lessons learned. CEO Chef comes to the convention or meeting site and brings all the equipment needed for the team building activity.
• Along the same lines, Recipe for Success has a very diverse menu: sushi, chili, chocolate, ice cream, and even ice sculptures! Other outfits are Hands on Gourmet and Parties that Cook.

Source: Hands On Gourmet

• Other companies like Gourmet Retreats in California and Tall Order in Vancouver specialize in a variety of culinary experiences, with team building being just one of their activities.
• The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is currently building an enormous kitchen that will be used exclusively for classes and demonstrations as well as team building activities.
• The Institut du tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ) and the Académies Culinaire de Québec and de Montréal offer cooking classes to private groups and open their facilities to companies who wish to hold team building events.
• The Québec Resorts and Country Inns network offers culinary team building as one of the indoor activities available at its establishments.
• Montreal outfit La Cuisine de Lili Margot is a place where guests help make their own meal with the help of a chef. It is also available for team building activities.

Source: Tall Order

Take the plunge!

With its positive outcomes, accessibility and user-friendliness, culinary team building seems to be making a name for itself. Participants gain a better understanding of their team’s strengths and challenges, as well as insight into how to manage its dynamic. And, of course, the highlight is the delicious group meal that follows.

The phenomenon has even reached Quebec. However, while there are some exciting initiatives, it is not clear that the supply is ready to meet the demand of meeting and convention organizers. There is definitely room for an organization to develop such activities for conventioneers and business travellers in Quebec. Of course, though hotel owners cannot simply become group leaders of team building activities overnight, they can certainly open the doors of their kitchens and develop such events in partnership with specialized companies, organizational psychologists or other professionals.

Perhaps the idea should simmer for a while…

Sources:
- Healthfield, Susan M., “Keys to Team Building Success,” About.com: Human Resources.
- HotelOnline. “Benchmark Hospitality’s Top Meeting Trends for 2007,” March 6, 2007.
- Vallerand, Nathalie. “Drôle de team building!” Affaires Plus, December 2007.

Websites:
- www.recipeforsuccess.com
- www.handsongourmet.com
- www.partiesthatcook.com
- www.tallorder.ca/retreat-programs
- www.desmondgv.com/conference/team_cook
- www.academieculinaire.com
- www.reunionschampetres.com
- www.lilimargot.com

Understanding the markets

The tourism industry is evolving in a turbulent market.

• Terrorism, natural disasters, climate change, and epidemics are destabilizing the industry, and security plays an important role.

Canada is losing ground on internationally; it must structure and reposition its tourism product and regain its market share on the world stage.

• Canada has not been in the top ten world destinations since 2004 and its market share is dwindling.
• Over the past several years, we have observed a significant decline in American clientele (Canada’s primary market) and international competition is increasing.
• New destinations are emerging, and some of them are gaining status; several destinations are investing heavily in infrastructure development and marketing.

Travellers are becoming more knowledgeable.

• Socio-demographic changes are influencing travel behaviour and products.

New business models are taking hold.

• At the turn of the present century, low-cost carriers were on the fringes of the air sector, but now they are bringing regular carriers to their knees and carving out their share of the market.
• And of course, the Internet has completely revolutionized the quest for information as well as reservation and distribution methods.

The quality of the tourism experience

Travellers are very demanding customers.

• The standard tourist profile is educated, high income, experienced – and able to evaluate performance.
• Tourists want to take full advantage of, and enjoy, their downtime.
• They do not simply want to “see”; they want to participate
• They are looking for experiences, authenticity, and the unusual.
• And nowadays, welcoming this clientele requires additional knowledge, such as understanding their language and culture.

Niche products are developed concurrently with mass tourism.

• A highly competitive environment requires a constant search for new things and the need to stand out in order to satisfy a heterogeneous clientele.
• Products and services are becoming specialized – and fragmented – in a search for personalization.

The variety of products available is exploding.

• One-upmanship, excessiveness, originality, and the unusual are setting the pace for developing products.
• Types of lodging are no longer solely defined by stars and services offered. Now, you can pay according to how much you weigh, or you can sleep in a tree, hanging from a crane, or in a wine barrel. You can rent a house – or just a sofa – in a foreign destination.

The concept of experience goes far beyond the simple notion of service.

• The client experience depends on the quality of the human resources involved in delivering it, requiring not only know-how, but also personal skills: relational skills, communication skills, a willingness to serve, the ability to exceed client expectations, and the ability to work as part of a team and to understand customers’ needs.

Sustainable development is definitely on the agenda

• The integration of sustainable development concepts is becoming imperative, as much to safeguard the product as to prioritize local jobs and give human resources the importance they are due.
• A new perception of the role and responsibility of “the company in society” requires it to act as a responsible citizen.

Appreciation, promotion, and recruiting

Is it a myth, or is it a reality, that tourism occupations are not synonymous with employment stability?

• The precariousness of tourism jobs remains a problem: atypical hours, part-time positions, seasonal character, and low pay.
• Tourism seasons are slowly being extended.
• Jobs in the tourism sector are often considered to be transitional work leading to another job in another sector.
• A high employee turnover rate prevents the tourism sector from being competitive.

Labour shortages are predicted to be a problem throughout the tourism industry.

• Competition between the various sectors to attract workers will complicate tourism recruiting, and employers will have to “court” potential recruits.
• The aging population will result in massive departures due to retirement, resulting in a loss of industry expertise.
• Difficulties in recruiting qualified staff in outlying regions will increase, and the exodus of young people to major centres will further complicate the situation.
• Although considered to present a solution to the predicted labour shortage, people 55 and older are often confronted with persistent prejudices (high pay, less productive, lack of technological ability, resistant to change, etc.).
• The multi-ethnic population and people being reintegrated into the community (drop-outs, troubled youths, and people with physical or intellectual disabilities) will help enlarge the labour pool, but will require some adaptation.

New employment dynamics are taking hold.

• Harmonization of generation gaps makes it possible to reconcile different worker profiles and expectations, to use each person’s skills and avoid conflicts.
• An individual will hold several jobs throughout his or her professional life.
• Many retired people are re-entering the labour market – but they are looking for conditions adapted to their needs.

There is a lack of vision and of joint action between the various sectors, regions, and organizations.

• This lack of synergy complicates the development of permanent jobs that – for example – could be a combination of complementary summer/winter activities.

The need to support human resource management

Managers of SMEs (the majority in tourism) are caught up in the whirlwind of operations.

• Those in charge are always in reaction mode: under pressure from investors and lacking the time and tools to manage their company effectively.
• Only a few managers have mastered the hiring process (recruiting, selection).
• They tend to relegate employee integration, supervision, and support to a secondary position, even though these things are their raw material.

Skills development and manager and employee training

The complexity of changes to the company environment requires understanding and monitoring.

• Abundant and increasingly complex information, an understanding of structural changes and their impact on the industry, as well as advances in the workplace, make it hard to upgrade knowledge.
• Bridging the gap between academic training and the company’s needs requires additional employee training.
• The pace of technological development – including the Internet – means there are changing ways of doing things in all spheres of the industry.

- This text was prepared for le Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en tourisme to generate discussion during the development of its 2008-2011 strategic plan.

> The cruise industry will experience explosive growth.

> An older, better-educated population in Europe and North America will increasingly seek ecotourism and cultural travel products.

> “Slow cities” and “slow food” trends will expand from Italy to much of Europe.

> London, New York, Sydney and Dubai will be the leading tourism poles through the end of the decade.

> Non-residents will pay significantly higher entry fees to tourist attractions than those paid by locals (Venice, Petra, Bath, etc.).

> Tourism Satellite Accounting will be adopted by several developing countries but ignored by the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and most Western European countries.

> Prayer rooms and compasses will be installed on most passenger aircraft serving the Islamic world.

> Antarctica will become an ecotourism tourism destination complete with hotels, restaurants and full-service tours.

> Shopping, from mega-malls to folk craft centers, will increasingly become a critical feature for tourism destinations.

> Rides on private spacecraft will become a recreational outing for the wealthy.

> Mega-resorts (Las Vegas, Orlando, Sun City, etc.) will do what no one thought possible: get bigger.

> Cruise ships will sell condominiums, becoming ocean-going resorts.

> In spite of organized international efforts to fight them, sex and drug-focused tourism will flourish.

> Airlines, travel agents and tour operators will ally themselves with financial institutions to offer consumer travel loans.

> Western tourists will shun countries with immense tourism potential but “rogue” leaders (Zimbabwe, Libya, Iran, North Korea, etc.).

> MGM Mirage will beat out rivals Hilton, Harrah’s and Bally’s to become the undisputed leader of the casino industry.

> National economies in Cuba, Egypt, Spain and Thailand will become dangerously dependent on tourism.

> “Rave” tourists will travel further abroad in search of the perfect party (BringItOn! Travel, Like Hiptrips, Experienceibiza, etc.).

> Enormous infrastructure projects will significantly expand automobile-accessible tourism options (Channel Tunnel car lane, Bahrain-Qatar causeway, etc.).

> China will be the first country to receive 100 million international arrivals in a 12-month period, sometime around 2018 - France will follow within 2-3 years.

Product & Service Trends

> Hotel rooms, increasingly equipped as offices with full-size desks, computers and advanced communications technologies, will minimize the need for business centers.

> Expansion of Europe’s high-speed train network will eliminate short haul flights.
 
> Hotel meeting and dining areas will be designed less formally in an attempt to attract the casual business traveler.

> Small super-luxury boutique inns will take market share from Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and Fairmont.

> Hub airports will install capsule-cocoon hotels in terminal facilities.

> Hotel and restaurant facilities will be designed for an aging population with lower rise steps, more handrails and wider doors.

> Travel guidebooks will become highly specialized and more frequently consulted - primarily on the web.

> The distinction between business and leisure hotels will erode as business clients seek fitness and entertainment activities and vacation guests demand advanced telecommunications IT.

> “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” will replace “Let the Buyer Beware”.

> Growth in demand for home food delivery will outpace all other food service segments.

> An aging population and growing infatuation with healthful living will bring a wave of European holistic spas and  ‘health-tels’ to North America and Asia.

> A new wave of budget conference & exhibition hotels will be built to meet the convention needs of cost conscious companies.

> European and Japanese new-build hotels will be obliged to design larger guest rooms closer to North American standards.

> Restaurant groups will operate F&B outlets wherever people gather (Laundromat bars, espresso counters at service stations, etc.).

> Center-city urban resorts will challenge sun, sand & sea vacation villages in the leisure market.

> Credit card check-in/check-out, F&B vending machines, self-cleaning bathrooms and self-serve laundries will eliminate most human contact in budget hotels.

> Luxury resorts that once shunned children will welcome them with an expanded array of activities and tailored dining options.

Investment & Finance

> Hotel real estate assets will be increasingly concentrated in the portfolios of fewer investors, particularly private equity funds.

> Intense competition for hotel operating contracts will push management fees as low as 1% of gross, 5% of IBFC and $4 per reservation.
 
> Airlines will continue to rack up significant losses as they struggle to deal with high fuel costs, new security requirements, an onslaught of no-frills carriers and brutal competition from ‘open skies’ agreements.

> Following the big American sell off of the 1980s and 1990s, hotel companies will be repatriated to the U.S. (Westin, Ramada, Renaissance, etc.).

> Airline alliances of the 20th century will evolve into acquisitions as weaker players struggle to survive (Air France-KLM, American-TWA, etc.).

> By the end of the decade, a score of management companies will control the world inventory of branded hotel rooms.

> Hotel feasibility studies will become an unprofitable commodity for hospitality consulting firms.

> Hotel operating companies will sell their remaining equity in real estate to free up capital for expansion of management contracts.

> Per room hotel acquisitions in Europe will reach stratospheric new records (i.e. Savoy Group).

> Franchising will experience explosive growth as hotel companies strategically reposition to get out of the hotel business and into the business of hotels (i.e. Radisson, Choice, Cendant, Holiday Inn, etc.).

> Fewer new-build hotels in Europe and North America, more existing property renovations.

Human Resources

> Critical shortages of skilled staff will encourage hospitality corporations to develop or outsource proprietary training centers.

> The introduction of new technologies in the upscale tourism industry will not replace the human element in service delivery - to the contrary, it will gain importance.

> Unionized hotel and restaurant workforces will trade scheduling and task flexibility for job security and quality-of-life benefits.

> Tourism and hotel management schools will move out of the classroom and out of the library, onto the web and into the field.

> Powerful unions, a shorter workweek and reluctance to taper social benefits will maintain Europe’s standing as the world’s most expensive tourism destination.

> Middle Eastern countries enforcing employment quotas for nationals will experience reduced productivity and higher labor costs.

> Airline employees will accept significant wage and benefit cuts to prevent their employers from going bankrupt.

Marketing

> The Internet will become the dominant distribution channel for all travel and tourism products eliminating most intermediaries.

> Understanding customers as people - their likes, dislikes, habits, interests and hobbies - will become critical to establishing competitive advantage in hospitality marketing.

> Customer retention will replace customer acquisition as travel agencies’ strategic objective.

> Homogenization of airline services will render them commodities while lodging products will continue to focus on differentiation.

> Data warehousing and data mining will provide one-to-one and relationship-marketing opportunities never imagined.

> Print media advertising will move onto the Web.

> Increasingly value-conscious customers will demand more and better product information.

> Consumers will increasingly expect to negotiate hotel and airline rates.

> Cross-sector strategic alliances between food service, lodging, travel and entertainment companies will prove to be effective marketing formats.

> Better understanding of psychographic consumer behavior will lead to more precise identification of customer segments and sub-segments.

> As marketers increasingly distinguish between loyalty and satisfaction, frequent use programs will become more elaborate.

> Hotel revenue management systems will become more sophisticated and be relocated from the reservations department to sales & marketing.

> Revenue management tactics will be applied to pricing in restaurants, amusement parks, golf courses, tour buses, cinemas, convention centers and sports stadiums.

> Hotel companies’ PMS standardization will result in the transfer of database and data warehousing responsibilities to CRS for greater operational and marketing efficiency.

> Market share and product profitability will be replaced by customer share and customer profitability as measures of marketing effectiveness in the hotel industry.

Safety & Security

> Consumers will systematically consult travel health sites before checking ticket or room availability.

> Security concerns in the Holy Land encourage religious tourists to make pilgrimages to sites in Ethiopia, Cuba, Greece, Italy and Morocco.

> Crime and terrorism will render some traditional tourist destinations unsellable.

> Customer credit cards will replace coded key cards in most hotels.

> Guest room safes will be enlarged to accommodate standard laptop computers.

> International hotel companies will refuse management contracts and franchises for hotels without in-room sprinkler systems.

> Terrorism fears will keep Israel, Indonesia, Iraq and India off the mainstream tourist circuit for the foreseeable future.

> Advanced encryption technology will make on-line payment genuinely secure.

Financial Management & Cost Control

> Zero-based budgeting will become the industry norm.

> GOPAR will replace RevPAR as the standard measure of hotel sales profitability.

> Speech recognition technology will lower staffing levels and operating costs in CRS call centers.

> To improve energy and water conservation, hotels will install usage meters and levy charges for consumption.

> Deregulation of the global telecommunications market will benefit the hospitality industry more than the deregulation of the airline markets.

> As hotel reservations made through global distribution systems diminish, GDS will exploit communications advances to reduce fees and costs.

> While hotel and café guests will increasingly expect wireless Internet access, other factors will encourage hospitality operators to invest in it - serving as a platform for mobile point-of-sales, reducing cable costs and more efficient restaurant table auditing.

Tourism Control Intelligence
E-mail: Nowlis@aol.com

• The cruise industry will experience explosive growth.
• An older, better-educated population in Europe and North America will increasingly seek ecotourism and cultural travel products.
• “Slow cities” and “slow food” trends will expand from Italy to much of Europe > London, New York, Sydney and Dubai will be the leading tourism poles through the end of the decade.
• Non-residents will pay significantly higher entry fees to tourist attractions than those paid by locals (Venice, Petra, Bath, etc.).
• Tourism Satellite Accounting will be adopted by several developing countries but ignored by the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and most Western European countries.
• Prayer rooms and compasses will be installed on most passenger aircraft serving the Islamic world.
• Antarctica will become an ecotourism tourism destination complete with hotels, restaurants and full-service tours.
• Shopping, from mega-malls to folk craft centers, will increasingly become a critical feature for tourism destinations.
• Rides on private spacecraft will become a recreational outing for the wealthy.
• Mega-resorts (Las Vegas, Orlando, Sun City, etc.) will do what no one thought possible: get bigger.
• Cruise ships will sell condominiums, becoming ocean-going resorts.
• In spite of organized international efforts to fight them, sex and drug-focused tourism will flourish.
• Airlines, travel agents and tour operators will ally themselves with financial institutions to offer consumer travel loans.
• Western tourists will shun countries with immense tourism potential but “rogue” leaders (Zimbabwe, Libya, Iran, North Korea, etc.).
• MGM Mirage will beat out rivals Hilton, Harrah’s and Bally’s to become the undisputed leader of the casino industry.
• National economies in Cuba, Egypt, Spain and Thailand will become dangerously dependent on tourism.
• “Rave” tourists will travel further abroad in search of the perfect party (BringItOn! Travel, Like Hiptrips, Experienceibiza, etc.).
• Enormous infrastructure projects will significantly expand automobile-accessible tourism options (Channel Tunnel car lane, Bahrain-Qatar causeway, etc.).
• China will be the first country to receive 100 million international arrivals in a 12-month period, sometime around 2018 – France will follow within 2-3 years.

Product & Service Trends

• Hotel rooms, increasingly equipped as offices with full-size desks, computers and advanced communications technologies, will minimize the need for business centers.
• Expansion of Europe’s high-speed train network will eliminate short haul flights.
• Hotel meeting and dining areas will be designed less formally in an attempt to attract the casual business traveler.
• Small super-luxury boutique inns will take market share from Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and Fairmont.
• Hub airports will install capsule-cocoon hotels in terminal facilities.
• Hotel and restaurant facilities will be designed for an aging population with lower rise steps, more handrails and wider doors.
• Travel guidebooks will become highly specialized and more frequently consulted – primarily on the web.
• The distinction between business and leisure hotels will erode as business clients seek fitness and entertainment activities and vacation guests demand advanced telecommunications IT.
• “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” will replace “Let the Buyer Beware”.
• Growth in demand for home food delivery will outpace all other food service segments.
• An aging population and growing infatuation with healthful living will bring a wave of European holistic spas and ‘health-tels’ to North America and Asia.
• A new wave of budget conference & exhibition hotels will be built to meet the convention needs of cost conscious companies.
• European and Japanese new-build hotels will be obliged to design larger guest rooms closer to North American standards.
• Restaurant groups will operate F&B outlets wherever people gather (Laundromat bars, espresso counters at service stations, etc.).
• Center-city urban resorts will challenge sun, sand & sea vacation villages in the leisure market.
• Credit card check-in/check-out, F&B vending machines, self-cleaning bathrooms and self-serve laundries will eliminate most human contact in budget hotels.
• Luxury resorts that once shunned children will welcome them with an expanded array of activities and tailored dining options.

Investment & Finance

• Hotel real estate assets will be increasingly concentrated in the portfolios of fewer investors, particularly private equity funds.
• Intense competition for hotel operating contracts will push management fees as low as 1% of gross, 5% of IBFC and $4 per reservation.
• Airlines will continue to rack up significant losses as they struggle to deal with high fuel costs, new security requirements, an onslaught of no-frills carriers and brutal competition from ‘open skies’ agreements.
• Following the big American sell off of the 1980s and 1990s, hotel companies will be repatriated to the U.S. (Westin, Ramada, Renaissance, etc.).
• Airline alliances of the 20th century will evolve into acquisitions as weaker players struggle to survive (Air France-KLM, American-TWA, etc.).
• By the end of the decade, a score of management companies will control the world inventory of branded hotel rooms.
• Hotel feasibility studies will become an unprofitable commodity for hospitality consulting firms.
• Hotel operating companies will sell their remaining equity in real estate to free up capital for expansion of management contracts.
• Per room hotel acquisitions in Europe will reach stratospheric new records (i.e. Savoy Group).
• Franchising will experience explosive growth as hotel companies strategically reposition to get out of the hotel business and into the business of hotels (i.e. Radisson, Choice, Cendant, Holiday Inn, etc.).
• Fewer new-build hotels in Europe and North America, more existing property renovations.

Human Resources

• Critical shortages of skilled staff will encourage hospitality corporations to develop or outsource proprietary training centers.
• The introduction of new technologies in the upscale tourism industry will not replace the human element in service delivery – to the contrary, it will gain importance.
• Unionized hotel and restaurant workforces will trade scheduling and task flexibility for job security and quality-of-life benefits.
• Tourism and hotel management schools will move out of the classroom and out of the library, onto the web and into the field.
• Powerful unions, a shorter workweek and reluctance to taper social benefits will maintain Europe’s standing as the world’s most expensive tourism destination.
• Middle Eastern countries enforcing employment quotas for nationals will experience reduced productivity and higher labor costs.Airline employees will accept significant wage and benefit cuts to prevent their employers from going bankrupt.

Marketing

• The Internet will become the dominant distribution channel for all travel and tourism products eliminating most intermediaries.
• Understanding customers as people – their likes, dislikes, habits, interests and hobbies – will become critical to establishing competitive advantage in hospitality marketing.
• Customer retention will replace customer acquisition as travel agencies’ strategic objective.
• Homogenization of airline services will render them commodities while lodging products will continue to focus on differentiation.
• Data warehousing and data mining will provide one-to-one and relationship-marketing opportunities never imagined.Print media advertising will move onto the Web.
• Increasingly value-conscious customers will demand more and better product information.
• Consumers will increasingly expect to negotiate hotel and airline rates.
• Cross-sector strategic alliances between food service, lodging, travel and entertainment companies will prove to be effective marketing formats.
• Better understanding of psychographic consumer behavior will lead to more precise identification of customer segments and sub-segments.
• As marketers increasingly distinguish between loyalty and satisfaction, frequent use programs will become more elaborate.
• Hotel revenue management systems will become more sophisticated and be relocated from the reservations department to sales & marketing.
• Revenue management tactics will be applied to pricing in restaurants, amusement parks, golf courses, tour buses, cinemas, convention centers and sports stadiums.
• Hotel companies’ PMS standardization will result in the transfer of database and data warehousing responsibilities to CRS for greater operational and marketing efficiency.Market share and product profitability will be replaced by customer share and customer profitability as measures of marketing effectiveness in the hotel industry.

Safety & Security

• Consumers will systematically consult travel health sites before checking ticket or room availability.
• Security concerns in the Holy Land encourage religious tourists to make pilgrimages to sites in Ethiopia, Cuba, Greece, Italy and Morocco.
• Crime and terrorism will render some traditional tourist destinations unsellable.
• Customer credit cards will replace coded key cards in most hotels.
• Guest room safes will be enlarged to accommodate standard laptop computers.
• International hotel companies will refuse management contracts and franchises for hotels without in-room sprinkler systems.
• Terrorism fears will keep Israel, Indonesia, Iraq and India off the mainstream tourist circuit for the foreseeable future.
• Advanced encryption technology will make on-line payment genuinely secure.

Financial Management & Cost Control

• Zero-based budgeting will become the industry norm.
• GOPAR will replace RevPAR as the standard measure of hotel sales profitability.
• Speech recognition technology will lower staffing levels and operating costs in CRS call centers.
• To improve energy and water conservation, hotels will install usage meters and levy charges for consumption.
• Deregulation of the global telecommunications market will benefit the hospitality industry more than the deregulation of the airline markets.
• As hotel reservations made through global distribution systems diminish, GDS will exploit communications advances to reduce fees and costs.
• While hotel and café guests will increasingly expect wireless Internet access, other factors will encourage hospitality operators to invest in it – serving as a platform for mobile point-of-sales, reducing cable costs and more efficient restaurant table auditing.

Tourism Control Intelligence
E-mail: Nowlis@aol.com