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TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO HOSPITALITY Learning objectives  To gain an overview of this course content, and how it is structured in terms of the study of hospitality as a human phenomenon and the study for hospitality as an industrial activity.  To identify competencies developed by this course and its potential to help benefit chosen vocational pursuits.  To understand the foundational concept of this course of “hospitality as an experience”.  To understand the ongoing debate of the meaning of hospitality  To understand the concept of hospitality as a socio-cultural phenomenon, beyond commercial operations  To gain insight into the meanings, structures and functions of hospitality.  To identify links between hospitality, tourism and other service related industries. Introduction to the course Hospitality has the ability to impact human relationships in a powerful way. In this course we reflect on what the experience of hospitality means, and how hospitality is enacted in various social, cultural and commercial contexts. The course encourages reflection on both the study of hospitality as a human phenomenon and study of hospitality as an industrial activity embracing the service of food, drink and accommodation. Lashley (2017, p.17) states that: studying hospitality as a commercial activity is just one domain, and that study of hospitality through the cultural/social domain and in the private/domestic domain can be interesting … in their own right …. but can also better inform the development of managers destined to manage hospitality operations … the host– guest relationship has emerged as a metaphor for any setting where one person (guest) enters the space of another (host). The study of ‘hospitality’ offers a unified lens for learning about history, community, traditional values, social interaction, social change, and economic activities. Hospitality operates in many different contexts, and it is not limited to the commercial hospitality industry. Many other service organisations such as banks, medical related services, nursing homes, retail stores, libraries etc now use the principles behind hospitality to improve the service experience of their clients. While most people have a general idea of what hospitality means, given its intangible quality as an experience, hospitality is very difficult to define and measure (Melissen 2014). In fact, there is an ongoing debate of the meaning of the concept of hospitality in the academic literature as scholars define it in various ways based on the purpose of the definition and the specific context it relates to. Melissen (2014, p. 13 - 14) states that since hospitality is a concept – a generalised idea that people have its meaning can differ based on the situation, and actions required. He illustrates this by drawing on the concept of “love”. He says that most of us have a clear idea of what love means, such as affection, attachment etc. However, the concept of love applies to different situations. There are different types of love – the love you have for your romantic partner, love for parents, love for Christmas or a book, a band etc. These examples refer to the same concept, but that same concept is applied in very different contexts/situations. Hospitality is similar to this, but unlike love the sentiment behind hospitality can be difficult to discern and capture. To illustrate this point, he provides two examples of equally satisfying but different hospitality experiences. The first one, is staying at a luxury

upmarket restaurant where you may be treated like a king or queen. The second experience, is a restaurant experience of ‘dining in the dark’, where your senses of taste and smell may be heightened by the fact that your brain does not need to deal with the effort of processing visual stimuli. Hospitality also apply to social contexts, and the following quotes from ordinary people provide different interpretations of hospitality (cited in Melissen 2014, p. 12) 

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‘I’m from Southern Tennessee [USA], to be exact – and down here we are all about Southern hospitality (e.g. new neighbour is welcomed with a sweet dish, people are addressed respectfully with good manners e.g. “yes ma'am/sir”)’ - Miley Circus ‘When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging ; when my patrons serve it on lake shore Drive [communal social setting], it’s called hospitality’ - Al Capone (here the concept is contrasted between the selling of a product versus providing a service). ‘Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even though you wish they were’ – source unknown (you want the guest to instinctively feel welcome by your actions without you having to explicitly tell them “make yourself at home”) ‘In hospitality, the chief thing is the goodwill’ - Greek proverb

The different domains/contexts of hospitality

Source Lashley (2017, p. 17) We reflect on what hospitality means in different contexts, in order to gain insight into creating more hospitable spaces. It has been difficult for academics to agree on a definition of hospitality as it is a complex and fuzzy phenomenon. When you look at the various definitions that have been offered in the literature, Brotherton (2017, p. 115) states that you will find that commercial hospitality is defined according to the following five primary characteristics, however he does acknowledge that there are some exceptions to this when you look at the social situations, and other service industries that constitute hospitality in a more broad sense. Note that it is often difficult to completely isolate the following aspects as they are interrelated. 1. The spatial dimension: places and spaces where all hospitality occur. 2. The temporal dimension –some define hospitality according to a particular time period, for example during the before civilization began, Dark ages, 20th Century etc. Also, it encompass the fact that hospitality is a temporary act in that it is provided for a defined time period. 3. The physical dimension – the types of physical features and products associated with hospitality provision. For example, food and beverage, accommodation, luxury brand

4. The behavioural dimension – the motives and human qualities embedded in the hospitality provision; for example, a welcoming attitude shown by the providers of the service. 5. The transactional dimension – customers have to pay for the products and services, the usage to these are temporary, limited to certain aspects and usage, needs permission from management to use in particular way etc. Experiential aspect of managing hospitality This course is titled The Hospitality Experience. The concept of ‘experience’ stated herein is an important component in this course of study, as commercial hospitality in particular is about the provision of ‘powerful experiences’ in many ways. “Experiences, like tales, fetes, potteries, rites, dramas, images, memories, ethnographies, and allegorica 1l machineries, are made; and It is such made things that make them” (Geertz 1986, p. 380). Similarly, hospitality experiences have to be made, just as a piece of pottery has to be made, or the plot of a story has to be made. An experience is made up all the things that went to make it. It is these things that make the experience special and personal. Experience is commonly defined as “something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary 2018). In line with this definition, Erdley and Kesterson-Townes predicted that in the future “[h]ospitality and leisure providers will move from a focus on facilities and services to embrace a mindset that customers will personally encounter, undergo or live through an experience [emphasis added]” (2002, p. 11). Today, we see that this has eventuated where hospitality is regarded as an experience rather than a mere service where products are delivered. Commenting about inherently personal nature of tourist preferences which also applies to hospitality preferences, Page (2003, p. 4) states: [hospitality] as a consumer activity is built on dreams, images and what people like to do. This is notoriously difficult to understand, as it enters the realms of psychology and trying to read the mind of the individual [consumer]. Furthermore, these psychological elements are bound up in notions of enjoyment, in feelings, emotions, and seemingly intangible and unseen characteristics. These are complicated further when taking into consideration the fact that these notions change throughout the life of an individual as a [hospitality] consumer There are many different perspectives from which the hospitality service encounter can be studied. The paradigm of considering hospitality as involving the provision of services and goods appears no longer to be the most effective approach to use according to some scholars. Citing Buswell (2004 p. 3), Berridge (2007, pp. 69-70) argues that this is because: In looking to understand the service encounter attention has been consequently drawn towards a deeper analysis of how the encounter unfolds and, as a result, towards the recognition of the experience individuals get through that encounter. The service encounter can involve outcomes and therefore satisfaction and dissatisfaction with service performance of the organisation. But a central thrust … is that the level of satisfaction with the service or transaction is affected by the experiential properties of the product or service and how they are understood and managed by the organisation. He then discusses the need to understand how experiences are constructed and interpreted: 1 Allegorical - the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence; also : an instance (as in a story or painting) of such expression Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary 2018, MerriamWebster Online.

By looking at how the elements of provision are envisioned, delivered and experienced, we are able to further our knowledge of how providers of experiences construct the experience they offer and in return we can begin to develop a way to deconstruct how participants then interpret those elements of the experience they receive. Such an approach also enables further understanding of the meaning experiences have for both participants and providers (Berridege, 2007 p. 66). Staging of holistic experiences is at centre stage in today’s business world. However, the practices behind the experience economy is not a new move, as Greeks and Romans in ancient times for example understood the impact of space and the three-dimensional effect on humans in the way they built their temples (Boswijk, Thijssen & Peelen 2006, p. 7). Agrarian economy  industrial economy  service economy  experience economy Proposing a view towards an ‘experience economy’, Pine, Gilmore, Betts, Houmann, and Stubblefield state that “[w]hen someone buys a good, he [sic] receives a tangible thing; when he buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf . But when he buys an experience, he pays for a memorable event that a company stages to engage him in an inherently personal way” (Pine & Gilmore 2001, p. 12). Pine et al (2001, p. 12) provide the following as examples of delivering hospitality experiences: The Hard Rock Cafe, which opened in London in 1971, merged rock music with food service to create a unique dining experience—one successful to this day. A paediatric dentist, Dr. John Culp, created a jungle motif for his office. His business results have skyrocketed and kids actually leave with smiles on their faces! Holbrook and Hirschman argue further that “[c]onsumption has begun to be seen as involving a steady flow of fantasies, feelings and fun encompassed by what we call the ‘experiential view’. This experiential perspective is phenomenological in spirit and regards consumption as a primary subjective state of consciousness with a variety of symbolic meanings, hedonic responses, and esthetic criteria” (1982, p. 132). Reiterating these views, Hemmington (2007, p. 6) argues that “customers do not buy service delivery, they buy experiences; they do not buy service quality, they buy memories; they do not buy food and drink, they buy meal experiences”. Furthermore, it is stated that “consumers in postmodernity seek to construct experiences that carry symbolic meaning” (Manolis et al. 2001 p. 232 cited inHarris, Harris & Baron 2003, pp. 185:185). That is, consumers are no longer satisfied by passively consuming “experiences, knowledge, artefacts, performances and goods” (Berridge 2007, p. 68) produced for them by others, but they are actively involved in participating and interpreting the experience. An example is a themed restaurant, such as the restaurant chain Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament which stage tournaments in the style of the chivalric contests of the High Middle Ages. Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament has gained great popularity as a chain of dinner theatres which stage tournaments in the style of the chivalric contests of the High Middle Ages. The following passage (see http://www.eioba.com/a/1m0s/medieval-times) describes how servers put on a performance and restaurant patrons engage in the performance, by acting out their role through cheering, food and perhaps even in the way they come dressed to participate in their role as commoners: Upon admission, patrons are seated at tables encircling a large indoor arena, in which the performing knights engage in jousting as well as sword fighting and individual and equestrian skill games. The house is divided into six sections, each assigned a different colour, and the

audience members are encouraged to cheer for knights who wear the same colour (an authentic nod to traditions of courtly love). Dinner is served in courses, without eating utensils, as the audience is to eat with their hands in "medieval fashion" (historically, knives were customary; forks and knives are available at the show for those who desire). There is no menu to choose from; a typical meal consists of soup, garlic bread, bone chicken, one potato, one rib, a varied pastry… The proponents of servicecapes have also reconsidered their initial view of customers as passive consumers of servicescapes. Citing Bitner (1992) Namasivayam and Mattila describe servicecapes as follows: Typical service encounters are not limited to the human contact as most services are produced and consumed simultaneously in the (service) factory or servicecape. A servicecape refers to the built environment, that is, manmade physical surroundings as opposed to the natural or social environment. Consumers encounter servicecapes prior to their encounter with a service provider (2007, p. 3). However, given customer propensity to be active participants in their consumption, the following extended dimensions to the customer-servicecape interaction has been recognised as follows (Aubert-Gamet & Cova 1999, p. 38): 

the environment is no longer considered only as a defined stimuli but also partly as a personal construct

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the environment is not only spatial but also social (a sociospatial construct)

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the customer is an active part of the environment.

Aubert-Gamet and Cova argue that this alternative way of looking at servicecapes “integrate the growing interest in the postmodern consumer to become part of processes and to experience immersion into thematic settings with others rather than merely to encounter finished products” (ibid). They also state that these extended ways of looking at servicecapes constitute ‘extraordinary experiences’ “characterised by high levels of emotional intensity and experience through personal interaction, rites, and creation of communal relationships” (1999, pp. 38-39). After reviewing a number of definitions of hospitality, Hemmington (2007) citing O’Connor (2005) proposes the need for a definition of hospitality as “behaviour and experience”. He believes that this would bring out aspects of the hospitality experience that have not been captured before, which would “take hospitality beyond services management to a place where hospitableness, a sense of theatre and generosity are central” (2007, p. 16). Based on this view, he suggests a five-dimensional framework to describe hospitality that focus on the (1) host-guest relationship; (2) generosity; (3) theatre and performance (4) ‘lot’s of little surprises’, and (5) security of strangers. These dimensions are described as follows: … hospitality businesses must focus on the guest experience and stage memorable experiences that stimulate all five senses. They must behave like hosts taking responsibility for the experience and creating lots of little surprises. They must appoint and develop their staff as performers and the cast in the experience. They must create a feeling of generosity, avoid parsimony, and not allow financial and operational control procedures to dominate the guest experience. Hospitality organisations that are able to capture this sense of theatre and generosity will gain competitive advantage by providing their guests with experiences that are personal, memorable and add value to their lives (Hemmington 2007, pp. 16-17).

Hemmington believes that such a definition would highlight the personal, memorable and valueadded nature of the hospitality experiences, differentiating hospitality experiences from services. Then in order to compare the differences between managing services and managing experiences in hospitality the following dimensions are presented by Hemmington (2007, p. 10): Dimensions

Service

Hospitality

Who is it for?

Customers

Guests

Who manages it?

Manager

Host

How is it managed?

Manufacturing Commoditization

Theatre

What is the economic function?

Delivery

Staging

What is the economic relationship?

Parsimony

Generosity

Who delivers it?

Staff

Cast

What is the delivery goal?

Customer Service

Performance

What is the timing?

Delivered on demand

Lots of little surprises

What are the needs?

Functional

Experiential

Who leads?

Customer led

Host led

What is the nature of the offering?

Intangible

Memorable

What are the factors of demand?

Benefits

Sensations

What are the security concerns?

of goods and processes

of strangers [guests]

Table: 1 Hospitality from service to experience – adapted from (Hemmington 2007, p. 10). The different stages of the experience economy 1st generation - Pine and Gilmore (2011) belong to the first generation of experience •

focus on the supplier side of experiences, and believe that it is the supplier that directs or stages the experience.

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This view lacks sufficient appreciation for the role of customers/guests in creating their own experiences.

2nd generation - experience is co-created by the customer and supplier 3rd generation - putting the customer in the center “the individual creates and directs his own meaningful experience – without interference from suppliers” (Boswijk, Peelen and Olthof, 2007., p. 10).  

putting the customer in the center ‘the individual creates and directs his own meaningful experience – without interference from suppliers’ (Boswijk, Peelen and Olthof, 2007., p. 10). Boswijk et al. (2007) see experiences as: o a process in which emotions play an important role (2007., p. 144) o and “in which interactions take place in a certain setting… between the individual and other people” (ibid., p. 144).

The ideas expressed in the experience economy has undergone many developments, and according to Boswijk, Thijssen, and Peelen, (2007) we are in the 3 rd stage. They state that the creation of experiences b...