ABSTRACT
To make a hotel experience possible, a series of vertically co-specialised firms’ link through the market. The extent to which they are involved in any one hotel’s ownership and operation are very much variable. With the major hotel chains continuing to be selecting not to own and, in particularly mature markets, not to operate hotels, the industry value chain is likely to remain fragmented or broken up.
In this final chapter, future observations about the design and development of hotel brands, the ownership of property and the management and distribution of hotels are outlined, along with remarks about substitute products. Suggestions for the future are forwarded related to next brand creation, investment in technology and data analytics, developing product and services to next generation consumers, and the implications of disintegration for employees.
The industry evolution talked about in this book has real implications for management education and graduates and recommendations are advanced. It is suggested that in research, it is important to engage much more with the new competitive landscape and to build theory based on real industry practice rather than on out-dated notions of what the hotel industry used to be and what previous research has already told us.
