According to an education expert, hospitality management graduates are increasingly being appointed to senior positions outside of their traditional roles due to their ability to interface effectively with the public and handle diverse crises.
Candice Adams, academic development manager at The IIE School of Hospitality and Service Management, says that with businesses having to adapt their strategies after the pandemic, service management is set to become one of the most sought-after skill sets across sectors – and this in turn is opening up an abundance of career opportunities for hospitality management graduates.
New job titles and roles are being created in businesses – focusing on guiding, supervising, curating or managing the customer journey – such as customer success consultants / managers, customer experience consultants, customer relationship managers, client services representatives, service managers, customer value representatives, and client innovations representatives/ managers.
So what will the hotel of the future look like?
“Based on research focusing on new trends, hotel designs will be a lot less big box and a lot more out of the box,” says Adams. The internet of things is spreading not only into homes, but also into hotel rooms.
From access to streaming services to a room key on your smartphone, the essential hotel amenities in a guest room are becoming increasingly digital. Guests want concierge services or temperature controls at the push of a button (or tap of a finger), and voice-activated controls are expanding beyond simply asking Siri / Google or Alexa to play your favourite song. These trends might sound futuristic, but it won’t be long before guests will expect them, rather than these features being a nice-to-have.
“So for those students interested in studying hospitality and service management, the message is clear – your options are good and growing not just in the traditional environment, but are also expanding into other career paths with great prospects.”