International week essay

I decided to make my essay from Richard Barnes’s presentation. He is a teacher in Aberdeen Business School in Scotland. The topic what Richard presented in his presentation was Hotel trends and innovations. He told us how hotels can come more sustainable and also what is the value of the Pink Pound (Pink Euro, Pink Dollar) for the hospitality industry.

Richard Barnes told us about this Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS). This Green Tourism Business Scheme help businesses working in the hospitality sector to achieve efficiency and marketing benefits by managing their environmental responsibilities. The Green Tourism Business Scheme looks for evidence of positive action in hotels and it has also these three classification levels, gold, silver and bronze, which hotels can apply. In these levels belong nine different environmental actions, which the hotel must fulfil, before it can achieve these levels. These nine things are code of conduct, management, communication, energy, water, purchasing, waste, transport and nature. The entry standard is bronze level. Much of this standard might be termed good housekeeping. Many businesses can easily reach this standard. The middle standard is silver level and it requires a commitment to good environmental management (energy, water, waste) and continuous improvement. The highest standard is gold level and it is the most rigorous. Gold requires a commitment to continuous improvement and significant efforts in green purchasing and the screening of suppliers to encourage more environmentally responsible services. I think that it is good thing that hotels are classified in these different levels (gold, silver, bronze), because then customers can see which one of these hotels really cares about our environment. It is so important thing today that hotels are doing green business and some customers really choose their hotel accordingly how much the hotel think and care about the environmental things, also good customer service is a big thing nowadays and customers will require more personal service. For example local food is nowadays a big trend issue in the world. Food has to be local produced and it is important that big business support local and small producers. Also food doesn’t taste so good if it has delivered from far, because generally it has been already frozen at once and the taste of food will suffer.

Richard Barnes told also about this new trend, the pink pound and what is its value to the hospitality industry. These pink pound trips are thought for gays and nowadays this minority group is an important target group in hospitality industry. Because they are travelling a lot and this is the target group which the hospitality industry should invest in the future. Why hotels should pay attention for this target group? Because on average they are well paid and they are ready to spend a lot of money for different products & services and mostly they are childless. From this target group the hotel will get a year-round customers, because these travellers are not limited to school holidays, and they will also often avoid the main season and school holiday times. In that way hotel will get customers also in the low season.

Richard Barnes’s presentation was very good and compelling. It was easy to follow the presentation and Mr. Barnes was really good performer. He had also good stories, what he told us for example hotels and different cultures, because he has travelled all around the world and experienced so much.