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Blogs & Podcasts
Hospitality Academy
Sharing hospitality industry tips and advice for hoteliers on a variety of topics designed to make your life a little easier and your operation more profitable. Tune in for regular interviews with hospitality industry professionals with a proven reputation for success.
Skift Podcast
Every week, we sit down with creatives, executives, and entrepreneurs from across the travel industry to discuss their insights and perspectives on the how and why of travelers’ habits, industry patterns and the seismic changes happening to each.
Turn of Events
Brings you the latest in event management
Websites
U.S. Travel Association
The U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the travel industry that generates $2.6 trillion in economic output and supports 15.8 million American jobs. U.S. Travel operates as a 501(c)(6) organization.
World Tourism Organization (UN)
The management team works towards a comprehensive vision for development of the tourism sector. This includes positioning tourism as a policy priority, establishing thought leadership in knowledge and policy creation, increasing resources and strengthening UNWTO’s capacity through meaningful partnerships.
World Travel & Tourism Council
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) represents the global private sector of Travel & Tourism, with a mission to ensure the sector is seamless, secure, safe, inclusive and sustainable. We raise awareness of Travel & Tourism’s value, not just as one of the world’s largest economic sectors, but also to the many communities and travellers enriched through their experiences.
Streaming Video
Coaching in Hospitality
The transient nature of the hospitality industry means that employees are often inexperienced, lacking awareness of the basic skills and good customer service techniques that add up to a smooth-running facility. This program uses input from training experts to define the role of the hospitality coach as well as the key factors for effective coaching in this industry. The video lists the main concepts that should be conveyed to staff, and how to determine if additional training is needed. Addressing ways to encourage workers, it also reviews different forms of coaching and the monitoring and support of ongoing employee development. A viewable/printable worksheet is available online. (19 minutes)
Factors Affecting Global Tourism
A vast number of trends and conditions shape the choices made by tourists, no matter where they hail from, and with the right analytical methods those factors can be turned into useful data. This program examines what many in the hospitality and tourism industry call the “global forces taxonomy,” which can be thought of as a hierarchy or a stratified array of factors affecting international tourism. Categories are organized into three layers: the outer layer (geographical, environmental, and climatic), the middle (demographic and socio-cultural), and the inner (political, economic, and technological). Each layer poses numerous challenges and opportunities which industry experts discuss in the video. The result is an excellent learning resource for anyone planning a career in tourism or related fields. Viewable/printable educational materials are available online. (20 minutes)
Growth and Niche Markets in Tourism
It’s one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, but like any business, tourism is evolving. More and more travelers are looking for experiences that go beyond the typical cruise or hotel stay—and with the emergence of niche tourism comes an increasing need for anyone in the hospitality trade to understand how it is expanding and what forms of specialization are involved. This program explores a range of niche markets, including volunteer tourism, health and medical tourism, gastronomic tourism, and even so-called dark tourism, which, as the name suggests, focuses on famous burial sites, war zones, and other points of macabre interest. Discussions with niche market tourists explore the motivations behind their excursions and whether the outcomes were what they’d hoped for. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. (21 minutes)
Health, Safety, and Security in the Hospitality Industry
Being a part of the hospitality industry can be a rewarding experience, but it can also mean working in an environment that poses safety hazards to staff and patrons alike. This program reviews health, safety, and security concerns unique to the hospitality industry, explains how to handle them, and offers ways to reduce the likelihood of them occurring at all. Emphasizing the importance of following workplace procedures, the video advises viewers on the types of accidents they are most likely to encounter, and makes the point that everyone, from the newest employee up to the site manager, is responsible for maintaining a safe workplace. A viewable/printable worksheet is available online. (17 minutes)
Introduction to Hospitality
The hardest part about working in the hospitality field may simply be deciding on which of its many popular career paths to pursue! This video will help interested students make an informed choice by describing commercial and noncommercial hospitality establishments and key hospitality departments such as management, food and beverage, gaming and entertainment, customer service, security, housekeeping, maintenance, and more. In addition, hospitality professionals from the Westin, the Melbourne, and Club Med Lindeman Island talk about what makes working in hospitality one of the best experiences on offer today. (25 minutes)
Teamwork in Hospitality
There are many reasons why the quality of restaurant and hotel service varies—but they generally boil down to one factor: teamwork. This program helps students who are aiming for the hospitality industry to understand why teamwork is vital to the success of an establishment, what its core principles are, and how it can be put into practice and strengthened. The video examines team structure, including both front-of-house and back-of house; basic teamwork concepts, including collaboration, morale, incentives, understanding individual roles, and identifying common goals; the importance of staff meetings and “handover” discussions; verbal, visual, and written communication techniques; and ways to solicit feedback from customers and staff. (25 minutes)
Too Much Tourism: The Lake District
Looking at tourism in England's The Lake District, this program examines how to balance the needs of tourism with preserving the natural environment that the tourists are coming to see.
Tourism Goes Green
Architects around the world are designing hotels that meet the demand for sustainable tourism, and travelers are increasingly considering environmental friendliness when they book hotel rooms or lodgings. But what does the tourist industry understand by "sustainable”? In this part of the Ecopia series, architects present their visions for the Swiss Alps, the Indonesian island of Bali and the eastern African nation of Rwanda. (26 minutes)
What Your Boss Wants: Hospitality
Interested in a career in hospitality? Get an insider’s perspective on what makes a good job application, a successful interview, what to expect in the induction process, and the type of assessments at the end of the probationary period in the hospitality industry. Interviewees also provide personal insights into the unexpected career paths that have led them to their current position in the industry.
