Text 2. KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Being dedicated to the service of people away from home, hospitality industry is concerned with their accommodation, provision of food and drink, their transportation and entertainment. That is why the institutions, which provide these services, are divided into three branches: hotel business (provision of places to stay), restaurant business (provision of food and drink), and tourist business (provision of transport and entertainment).

The HOTELS may be classified according to location, prices, and type of services offered. By virtue of their location, hotels may be central (situated in the city center), resort (in exotic locations), airport (for air passengers), and freeway (on the highways). By virtue of prices, hotels can be classified into luxury, upscale, mid-scale, and budget. And by virtue of services offered, hotels may be classified into full-service (with all sorts of services), economy (offering clean, reasonably sized and furnished rooms), residential (for long-term guests), all-suite hotels (rooms with adjacent lounge and kitchenette area). Classification of RESTAURANTS may be based on two factors: menu and services offered. According to the menu, there are two main categories: full-service and specialty restaurants. Restaurants of the first type have more than a dozen main-course items that are cooked to order. Specialty restaurants specialize in one dish (pizza, hamburger, chicken, steak, seafood, etc.). According to the services, the restaurants are classified into occasion (also called luxury) and casual restaurants. Two types of services are used in occasion restaurants: French service (the food arranged on platters and presented to guests, after which the reparation is completed on a trolley-like side table with a gas burner), and Russian service (the food is cooked in the kitchen, placed onto a serving dish, and served to the guests individually with a serving spoon and fork). Casual dining is characterized by relaxed atmosphere, where not only Russian service is typical, but also its simplified version called American service (the food is prepared and put into individual plates in the kitchen before being carried into the dining room), and even buffet-type service (self-service).

The TOURIST BUSINESS deals with promoting, transportation and accommodation. Among the promoters are tour wholesalers (who design and package tours), tour operators (who sell tour packages to tourists and act as escorts (guides), travel agencies (who sell on behalf of airlines, rail and bus companies). The transportation businesses are airlines, cruise tines, rental auto and bus companies. The accommodation businesses are motels (hotels for motorists), resort hotels (hotels in exotic places for people on holiday), destination-management companies (organizations in charge of developing and implementing tourist programs in the areas attractive to tourists). The tourist market is divided into segments (user-groups) according to the buying possibilities of the clients: mass, middle and luxury markets. People who travel with a group make a group inclusive tour, and those who prefer to travel alone are called independent. When the people are taught to deal with ecology of the region they are visiting, they are called ecotourists.

LESSON 1: THE HOTEL BUSINESS

Reading:

Unlike other members of hospitality industry, such as airlines or restaurant chains, which may develop their businesses in much the same way as a manufacturing company, the hotel industry faces some peculiar difficulties due to its peculiar management and ownership structure. Airlines, cruise lines, restaurant chains have highly centralized management operations in which strategic decisions are made. Major hotel chains cannot do it because they often even do not own all the properties that they manage, such as restaurants, retail stores, fitness centers, and nightclubs. This creates additional complexity in strategic planning. Besides, owners of hotels often’ show surprisingly little interest or knowledge of their own properties. Hotels throughout the world have commonly been acquired for the sake of tax benefits, or even as an ego-fulfilling device, particularly in the case of upscale showcase properties. The hotel business is characterized by a high degree of risk, which primarily is the result of two factors: the cyclical nature of demand and the high degree of capital investment. A greater proportion of profit comes from the manipulation of real estate rather than from the sale of rooms. The great increase in value of the Hilton and Sheraton companies has not come from operating profit but from buying, selling, tax advantage, and in appreciation of value of the hotels with time. The name of the game is financial management and the game is complex.

The hotel industry has never been a leading industry; rather, it generally reacts to circumstances. Frequently, it is caught by outside forces and swept along. In the mid-1970s the US experienced 12 percent inflation and a shortage of good hotel inventory. This meant that there was too much money (demand) chasing too few rooms (supply). The insurance and pension funds industry, which at the time was cash rich, began to invest heavily in new hotels. Many of these were massive, mixed-use commercial projects consisting of hotels, office blocks, and shopping malls. In some cities, these complexes were not built for the right reasons: America's inner cities were in decline. However, because hotels are a catalyst for other businesses, every city mayor offered significant benefits to major hotel investments, including tax breaks. And hospitality industry began to recover from recession.

Exercises:

1. Find in the text the following topical words and phrases, make sure that you are able to explain in English what they mean, and add them to your working vocabulary:

a retail store, a fitness center, tax benefit (advantage, break), real estate, lodging,

operating profit, financial management, demand and supply, recession.

2. Write out from the text the sentences or their parts which contain the following words and phrases and translate them into Russian:

due to, centralized management operations, showcase property, an ego-fulfilling device, primarily, appreciation, to yield, cash rich, a shopping mall, inner cities, circumstances, tax breaks.

3. Answer the following questions trying to use as many topical words and phrases as you can:

1. Why can a restaurant chain develop its businesses in the same manner as a manufacturing company but a hotel chain cannot?

2. What secondary properties are often acquired by hotels and why?

3. What is a major source of profit of a hotel company?

4. Why is the value of the Hiltons and the Sheratons constantly increasing?

5. What was the situation in the American hotel business like in the 1970s?

6. Why did the insurance and pension funds begin to invest in new hotels?

7. What kind of hotels were mostly constructed in those days?

8. Why did the city mayors offer benefits to hotel investors?

LESSON 2: THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS

Reading:

The first true restaurant, the Grande Taverne de Londres, opened in Paris in 1782, by Boulanger, "the father of modern restaurant". He called his famous soups "restoratives", because they were believed to restore the guests' strength and energy. By 1794, when heads were literally rolling in Paris, there were about five hundred restaurants in this city. Although it really cannot be said that the French Revolution was responsible for the invention of the restaurant, it was responsible for the propagation of the concept. The chefs of the best restaurants were scattered by the Revolution. Some stayed in France; some went to other parts of Europe; many crossed the Atlantic to America, especially to New Orleans, the truly French corner of the New World. They almost all went into restaurant business, bringing their culinary traditions with them. Soon the plain, hearty fare of the British and the primitive cooking of the Americans were laced with piquant sauces. Other countries, too, felt the effects of French culinary artistry, and most absorbed some of the principles of French cooking into their own. Exceptions were the Italians, who had developed their own very strong culinary traditions and felt, with great deal of justification, that French cooking was itself derived from the Italian. Restaurants play an important role in society. Dining out fulfills an important social need. People want not only nourishment, but also the social interaction that takes place in a restaurant setting. But the successful operation of a restaurant is dependent on a number of factors, and the most important of them are its positioning, i.e. a distinctive place in the market and its concept, i.e. the total impression it makes on its potential guests. The market of a restaurant is composed of those guests who will patronize it. A good indication of the size of the market can be ascertained by taking a radius of from 1 to 5 miles around the restaurant in question. This area is usually called the catchment area. In order to determine the potential viability of a restaurant it is necessary to divide the number of restaurants in the catchment area by the total population. The average number of people per restaurant in the United States is about five hundred. Perhaps this kind of saturation is one of the reasons for the high failure rate in restaurant business. Obviously, each area is different: one location may have several Italian restaurants but no Chinese restaurant. Therefore, a Chinese restaurant would be unique in the market, and, if properly positioned, may have a competitive advantage. If someone in the catchment area wanted to eat Italian food, he would have to choose among the various Italian restaurants. Each year thousands of new restaurants open and thousands more close, and even more change ownership for cents on the dollar. The restaurant business is relatively easy to enter, but it is very difficult to succeed.

Exercises:

1. Find in the text the following topical words and phrases, make sure that you are able to explain in English what they mean, and add them to your working vocabulary:

a restorative, a chef, a culinary tradition, dining out, positioning, a concept, a catchment area, a failure rate, a competitive advantage.

2. Write out from the text the sentences or their parts which contain the words and phrases given below and translate them into Russian:

nourishment, to patronize, viable, viability, saturation, to change ownership.

3. Answer the following questions trying to use the topical words and phrases:

1. What is the etymology of the word "restaurant"?

2. In what sense was the French Revolution responsible for the spread of restaurants in the world?

3. What was characteristic of traditional British and American cooking?

4. What country was least influenced by French culinary traditions?

5. What needs does a restaurant fulfill?

6. What is meant by "positioning"?

7. How do the marketers find out the size of the catchment area of a restaurant?

8. How is the potential viability of a restaurant calculated?

9. What is the reason for the high failure rate of restaurants in the US?

10. When has a restaurant a competitive advantage?

LESSON 3: THE TOURIST BUSINESS

Reading:

Tourism may be defined as the science, art and business of attracting and transporting

people, accommodating them, and catering to their needs and wants. As an industry, tourism is a dynamic, evolving, consumer-driven force. It is the world's largest industry, with approximately $3.5 trillion in gross output. It is the employer of 183 million people. This represents 10.2 per cent of the global workforce. By employing one out of every ten workers, travel and tourism is the world's largest employer. As an industry, tourism is expected to grow much faster than other sectors, about twice as fast as world GNP, especially international travel. Growing so rapidly, tourism presents both tremendous opportunities and challenges. Although a mature industry, tourism is a young profession. The good news is the variety of exciting career prospects for today's hospitality and tourism graduates.

In addition to their original expenditures, tourists produce secondary impacts on local economy. When a tourist spends money to travel, to stay in a hotel, or to eat in a restaurant, that money is recycled by these businesses to purchase more goods, thereby generating further use of the money. In addition, employees of businesses who serve tourists spend a higher proportion of their money locally on various goods and services. This chain reaction continues until there is a leakage, meaning that money is used to purchase something from outside the area. This phenomenon is usually called the multiplier effect. Most developed economies have a multiplier effect between 1.7 and 2.0. This means that the original money spent is used again in the community between 1.7 and 2.0 times. However, tourism results not only in sociocultural benefits but also in problems. Imagine the feelings of an employee in a developing country who earns perhaps $ 5 per day when he or she sees wealthy tourist flaunting money, jewelry, and a lifestyle not obtainable. Another example might be nude or scanty-clad female tourists sunbathing in a Moslem country. Critics argue that, at best, tourism dilutes the culture of a country by imposing the mass tourism market. Most resorts offer little opportunity for meaningful social interaction between the tourist and the host community. As a rale, only the lower positions are filled by the local people in the luxury hotels built by foreign developers. On the other hand, proponents of the sociocultural benefits of tourism are able to point out that tourism is a clean and green industry, that most of hotels are built with concern for the environment and use local crafts people, designers, and materials. Tourism brings new revenue to the area; it also creates and maintains higher rate of employment than if there were no tourism. It may act as a catalyst for the development of the community because this revenue helps to provide schools, hospitals, and so on.

Exercises:

1. Find in the text the following topical words and phrases, make sure that you are able to explain in English what they mean, and add them to your working vocabulary:

to accommodate, catering, a multiplier effect, a lifestyle, sunbathing, the mass tourism market, the host community, a developer, tax revenue.

2. Write out from the text the sentences or their parts which contain the words and phrases given below and translate them into Russian:

an employer, GNP, the host community, to be recycled, without distinction, to flaunt money, obtainable, a proponent, rate of employment.

3. Explain in English the meaning of the following phrases:

a consumer-driven force, both opportunities and challenges, a mature industry, career prospects, a chain reaction, a scanty-clad female tourist, a green industry.

4. Answer the following questions:

1. What is meant by tourism? Are there any differences in meaning between the English word "tourist" and its Russian equivalent "турист"?

2. What can you say about economic impact of tourism?

3. What is meant by the multiplier effect?

4. Why are tourists sometimes disliked by the host community?

5. What do the critics say about the negative impact of tourism?

6. What do the advocates of tourism say in defense of this business?

LESSON 4: REVIEW EXERCISES

1. Discuss the following concepts and notions:

table d'hote, a la carte menu, French service, American service, Russian service, buffet service, an independent tourist, a group inclusive tour, ecotourism, recession, the front of the house, the back of the house, a market segment, the mass market, position­ing, the guest count, the average guest check, fixed and variable expenditures, operating expense, operating profit, net profit, a multiplier effect, a green industry, GNP.

2. Give your definitions of the following topical words and phrases:

accommodation, entertainment, a location, a covert, a destination, an escort, a retail store, a fitness center, real estate, a shopping mall, dining out, cuisine, the catchment area, failure rate, to patronize, saturation, viability, deprecation, to fluctuate, payroll, maintenance, the host community, a dual-income couple, a minivacation, gilded youth, a traditionalist.

3. Choose a topic for Project Work or an Essay from those given below:

1. How do hotels cater to the needs of business and leisure in reference to the resorts and airport hotels?

2. Is it possible to create a full-service luxury restaurant chain? Why not? Arrange a talk show on this issue.

3. Economic impact of tourism and the organizations that control or further it.

4. The positive and negative impacts that tourism can have on a host country. Arrange a talk show on this issue.

UNIT 3.

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 10440