The Year 2000 Problem
Computers' Year-2000 problem (Y2K), whereby some computer software won't recognize any digits as representing years in the 21st century, may well strike hoteliers particularly hard due to hotels' reliance on date-sensitive data (room reservations, for example). Moreover, unless hotels' software is updated, Y2K will manifest itself sooner among hotels than in many other industries, as hotels begin to book rooms in the year 2000. Hoteliers can (1) choose to do nothing (i.e., wait and see what actually happens), (2) debug their existing computer applications, or (3) purchase and install all new systems software. Some methods to remove the Y2K problem include these five techniques: size expansion, data encoding, date shift, soft windows, and hard windows. Replacing existing application software with new, Y2K-compliant computer software will resolve the problem. That approach, however, means that all of a hotel's related computer-program requirements be accounted for—which is an enormous undertaking. Moreover, new computer systems are costly, and “off the shelf” business software rarely is of much help to hoteliers. As a result, hotels' computer systems and software most often require extensive customization. Time is short; hoteliers don't have until 2000 to solve their Y2K problems, since a hotel's existing reservation system may not be able to recognize reservations for the year 2000 (“00”). In practical terms, the time required for software development and testing is substantial. Therefore, hotels need to handle the Y2K issue immediately.
IT Connectivity and Pan‐European Hospitality Marketing
Much of the focus on information technology has been on the technology rather than the information. Developments in computing and communication systems have sharply accelerated the trend towards highly connected networks of organisations, each of which contributes to the total provision of goods or services to the consumer. Travel and hospitality products are almost archetypal examples of this type of structure. Hospitality managers must develop the technical skills that will enable them to envisage different forms of organisation structure and to devise new marketing strategies to exploit it.
Preparing Managers for Industry: The Role of Hospitality Management Education
Management education, training and development is a key issue for the British economy which has, by international standards, an undereducated, underqualified and undertrained workforce. However, the varied nature of managerial work reduces the value of prescriptive approaches to management education. The Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management Association (HCIMA) recently redesigned its professional qualifications to try to meet the complex needs of the hospitality industry more closely. In general its proposals have been well received but it is clear that as elsewhere, hospitality managers need to take a more positive stance towards personal development and education if they are to cope with the 1990s as effectively as their European counterparts seem ready to do.