In the modern times, the way people spend their vacations
has undergone a great change. People like to spend good times with family and
friend while at the same time exploring various tourist places across the
globe. As a result the tourism industry across the globe has seen an
unprecedented growth which in turn has also resulted in tremendous growth in accommodation
facilities. Comfortable hotels and accommodation facilities play a very
important role in popularizing any tourist destination. If a person, who is far
away from home, gets to enjoy the same facilities and comforts as he enjoys at
his home, then he is bound to become attached to the place. On the other hand
if the tourist ends up at a place where the hotels and accommodation facilities
are not satisfactory, it is quite likely that he might never return to that
place. Perhaps that is why, accommodation facilities being made available at
different tourists spots, have shifted focus on providing maximum comfort to
tourists at reasonable rates. It is also vital to provide comfortable
accommodation to people from diverse economical backgrounds. While five star
hotels can cater to the needs of affluent visitors, small and medium range
hotels and lodging houses are available for use by a middle class traveler. There is no doubt that tourism is an
important source of employment for non-metropolitan communities, especially
those that are economically underdeveloped. Furthermore, tourism could lead directly to
unsightly sprawl in rural areas by creating a demand for development involving
different sectors within the tourism industry. One of such sector is
accommodation.
Accommodation
has been a travel requirement since the first trading; missionary and pilgrimage
routes were established in Asia and Europe in pre-Christian times. The basis
for such accommodation was generally non-paying as travelers were provided with
a roof over their heads and sustenance as part of a religious obligation or in
the hope that similar hospitality might be offered to the host in the future.
The first reference to commercial accommodation provision in Europe dates back
to the thirteenth century. This concurs with the traditional perception that
associates tourism with hotels. Traditionally, hotels played a central role in
the development of tourism industry. Similarly, tourism accommodation in
general can be used as a tool for tourism development. In contrary to the
traditional perception, this article establishes that tourism is one of the
most dynamic industries that change with time. Nowadays tourism is associated
with service industry that embraces business principles like competitiveness,
sustainability and many others that will hopefully come up in the proposed
generic strategy.
At the same token, several scholars regard accommodation as
a basic, functional business within the tourism industry. Most tourists
experience the extreme luxury and opulence of tourism when accommodation is of
a high standard. Such accommodation can either be informal or private or it may
be provided within governments or independently. If one considers the
traditional view of a hotel as an establishment that provides accommodation,
food and beverage services to short- stay guests on a paying basis, the level
of luxury would depend on personal choice and expectations. Hotels constitute
proportion as a sub-sector of tourism accommodation business. Most of the
existing studies only focused on hotels, ignoring the fact that there is a
diverse array and numerous classifications of accommodation facilities related
to the tourism industry.
CLASSIFICATION
OF ACCOMMODATION
They are two major classifications of accommodation,
and this has been offered on the type of property and amenities which they
offer. Accommodation types may differ in terms of their style of operation,
size, services and the product which they offer. They are the serviced
accommodation and non-serviced accommodation.
SERVICED
ACCOMMODATION are purely business oriented and are
primarily built to provide lodging. They also provide all the expected services
which the tourist/visitors have paid for. In addition, on the provision of such
accommodation, the visitor has to pay for all the services at once for the
stipulated time and must not be requires to pay additional money while there.
Services accommodation includes the following; hotel accommodation, motels,
Guest houses and Inns, and Bed and Breakfast. Hotel accommodations can be
classified into starts depending on their facilities and amenities. It ranges
from five star hotels, four star, three star, two star and one star hotel.
NON
SERVICED ACCOMMODATION these are otherwise called partial
tourist accommodation. Although it provides accommodation to tourists, it is
primarily established for non-commercial purposes. Among them are
Ø Free accommodation:
this type of accommodation is available to tourist at no cost and usually from
friends, relations or family members.
Ø Second home:
this is an accommodation owned by a tourist in form of apartment, house and
villas in a destination, which serves as his second home while away from home.
Ø Rented home:
this form of accommodation is available to tourist on temporary basis. It is
the temporary renting of private houses as a whole by tourists while on tours
in such destinations. Theses forms of accommodation allow the tourists to
provide him/her with self catering.
Ø Rented rooms:
the tourist this case rents a room in a family house where the owners are also
living. This is the type of accommodation that is mainly used by educational
tourists because it is cheap and affordable.
Other forms of non-serviced accommodation include
caravans, tents, hostels, dormitories, brothels, and churches
THE
ROLE OF ACCOMMODATION IN TOURISM DVELOPMENT
Tourist accommodation performs an important function
within both the context of rural and urban tourism. It provides the opportunity
for visitors to stay for a length of time to enjoy the locality and its
attractions, while their spending contributes to the local economy.
Accommodation forms a base for the tourist’s exploration of the urban and
non-urban environments. The tendency for establishments to locate in urban
areas preclude peripheral opportunities from expansion thus intensifying their
need to find a relevant modus operandi rather than relying
on what happens in the metropolitan areas and within established urban tourism
initiatives.
Generally, accommodation do not attract tourist on
its own right, rather they provide support services that are the core element
of tourism industry. It can thus be argued that accommodation does not generate
the tourist’s motivation for travelling. The motivation to travel is usually
led by the desire to experience a wider tourism product at a particular resort
or locality with accommodation as one of the crucial tourism product. Accommodation
as a tourism product has to reflect the vital components of any business
product. For sustainability, a product has to be well positioned or located. The
location needs to be accessible in terms of transport, information technology,
and infrastructure. Location often determines the appeal and accessibility of
properties. Typically the distance decay principle applies to decision making
when considering accommodation locations. However, accommodation is an integral
part of the over all tourism infrastructure as without it tourists will not visit
the location. There are situations where its provision has dominated
development plans. Moreover, it also assists in attracting wider investment in
the tourism product at the locality. Some scholars agrees that accommodation
could feature as an element in wider economic development strategies but it
needs to play a primary and varied role as a successful tourism product too. It
is difficult to generalize about the proportion of total tourist expenditure
that is allocated to accommodation because this varies greatly according to the
market, accommodation type and nature of product purchased. A generally
accepted estimate is that a third of the total trip expenditure is allocated to
this sector. This figure decreases in the case of fully inclusive packages.
In addition,
accommodation acts as a catalyst for a range of additional sales opportunities
within the complex tourism and hospitality business. Casino hotels have
discounted accommodation in anticipation of generating considerable profit from
customers at the gaming tables, while golfing hotels may seek to generate good
profits from green fees rather than room revenues. Indeed, accommodation
pricing in general is a complex and sometimes controversial area in tourism
industry.
Conclusion
Accommodation is the largest and arguably the most
important sub-sector of the tourism industry. It is large and highly diverse. Together
with the transport industry, accommodation industry caters for international
tourists, regional tourists and national tourists as well as locally based
tourists. In a way, it meets the needs of virtually all tourism market groups. The
rapid change within this sector of tourism does not only bring fierce
competition, but it also brings about new products and new services standards. It
is the new product, with new service standards that becomes the focal point of
this article. Challenges posed by technological development within the
accommodation sector of the industry will still be addressed from different
perspective.
