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Hanson
William HansonProf. WrightIntro Hospitality IndustryFebruary 18, 2009Economic Influence on the Hospitality CycleRecession, economic turmoil and the uncertainty of the world economy make onewonder about the future of the hospitality industry. If the hotel industry could order room-service for itself, the menu would include more conventions and the return of  business travelers. When will conditions improve for the industry? That's hard to say.Philadelphia Business Journal states, “Twice as many U.S. companies as previously expected are cutting their travel spending this year in response to economicweakness and uncertainty. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives says 71% of its member companies now plan to spend less on travel this year than in 2008. That's ahuge and unprecedented shift in corporate travel managers' plans from just five monthsago, says Susan Gurley, the association's executive director. Most companies are seekingto spend 10% to 20% less on travel than they were expecting to spend just five monthsago, the latest survey shows. Using the most conservative figures for estimating the dollar 
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impact of such cuts, the ACTE suggests that the 176 member companies that respondedcollectively will spend about $880 million less on travel this year than they had planned.”With more corporations cutting their travel spending the impact of fewer conventions being held in larger cities creating less revenue for all. This directly andindirectly affects the circular flow of the economy as it relates to the hospitality industry.CIRCULAR FLOW: Foreign tourists spend money and that money generateshigher incomes, which is then spent by individuals on more products and services,meaning more income for businesses, meaning higher incomes, etc.Let’s start with travel. With the recession in full swing there are fewer peopletraveling. This is not just in the U.S., but worldwide. The evidence started becomingapparent around a year ago when Las Vegas started experiencing an influx of visitorsfrom the UK. At the time the struggling US economy saw a devaluation of our currency.The British pound was nearly 2/1 to the US dollar. Now the currency of both nations has been falling and we have seen fewer travelers from abroad. This means fewer airlineseats have been purchased, which led to layoffs in the airline industry. Now with lesstravelers coming from out of state or abroad, car rentals have been declining, taxi cabshave been needed less frequent and so on.
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Of course the other major affect of this economy is that there are fewer guestsstaying at the hotels. As stated in USA Today “Nationally, the hotel industry saw an 8.9 percent decline in income received from rental of guest rooms last year, according toPKF Consulting. This year looks even worse: the income on guest-room rentals isexpected to drop by another 9.1 percent. Back-to-back declines of that magnitude would be the worst since the Great Depression, the organization noted. "Hotels are labor-intensive, they have high expenses and have had very few productivity enhancements,"said Mandelbaum. "Hotels benefited from the boom 1990s. ... Now, the industry has lostits ability to charge (higher) prices, but it's still very expensive to operate a hotel."Occupancy rates have dropped sharply around the country and are now droppingin Las Vegas. The slow down of visitors has caused numerous issues ranging from asimple cut in hours, elimination of shifts, loss of jobs and the halting of major construction projects. Now we continue with the cycle by using the example of the employees of thehospitality industry and their role. Let’s say we have a popular lounge, in a major hotelon the Las Vegas Strip. With the low occupancy rate fewer guests are going out for drinks or spending as much money at the restaurants in the hotel. This in turn causesmanagement to start cutting hours do to the lack of business. The lack of hours affects theemployees in two ways; less money on their pay check, as well as, less cash from
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