The Challenge of Event Management as a New Trend in the Hospitality Industry
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main focal point and the idea of this research work are centered on the challenges of event management as a trend in the hospitality industry. Other objectives the research will cover in this work are:
- To ascertain the challenges faced by event management in Nigerian hospitality industries.
- To investigate how these challenges affect the hospitality industry and its growth within the economy.
- To highlight all the possible means by which the challenges faced in event management can be overcome or reduced.
- To address the issues of security and terrorism as it is one of the challenges of event management in our country Nigeria to the hospitality industries.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Davies and Brown (2000) write that “festivals and events are special times in people’s lives, they give us the opportunity to go outside normal experiences for a cultural, social or leisure experience” (p. 169). The public use of the word ‘event’ does not necessarily concur with the scientific use of it (Loos, Hermes, & Thomas, 2008). The literature available is mostly not concerned about defining the word event prior to undertaking research in the field, which leads to communication gaps and misunderstandings. To prevent common misunderstandings this literature review defines, discusses and structures the comparatively young industry of event management. It starts with the origin of the word ‘event’ and the industry of event management, followed by the importance, the influencing factors and the skills of people within the industry. The last part of the literature review is devoted to a framework of best practices in event management. The outcome of the literature review is a base to work from throughout the study and beyond.
Event Management Defined
The word ‘event’ is derived from the Latin word ‘eventus’ which means “outcome, result. success.” Further research into the etymology of the word ‘eventus’ on (“Event,” 2009) describes the line of descent as the following: Eventus is derived from the Latin word eventum (occurrence, event, issue), which is derived from the Latin word evenire (come out, it happens, it turns out), which is derived from the Latin word venire (to come, go for sale). This line of descent gives the conclusion that originally an event is an occurrence, something that happens. The first mentioned definition in the English speaking world originates from Robert Jani in 1955. Jani said that “a special event is that which is different from a normal day of living” (Jani, 1955, in Goldblatt, 2005, p. 6). Since then, written sources have not settled on a single generally accepted definition of events. Getz (1997) defines events as “temporary occurrences, either planned or unplanned” (p. 4). To describe the difference between unplanned and planned events, the word event is preceded by the word ‘special’, to indicate a human element; therefore a special event is a “one-time or infrequently occurring event outside a normal program” (Getz, 1997, p. 4). Due to the human element of planning and managing, events have been growing rapidly and have become bigger and bigger. For the purpose of the thesis and with regards to the event industry we will use the term special event to describe a planned, temporary occurrence that is outside the daily routine of people. To shorten the spelling, the term special event will be abbreviated to event.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the challenge of event management as a new trend in the hospitality industry
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment, the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on the study the challenge of event management as a new trend in the hospitality industry 200 five star hotels in Uyo was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the challenges of event management as a new trend in the hospitality industries.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of event managements in hospitality industry.
Summary
In the cause of the study a large proportion of the population opined that hospitality industry faces enormous challenges on events management some of the respondent agree that increase in hospitality industries will increase employment hence productivity would increase and positively affect GDP since there is enough manpower thereby reducing the challenges encountered in events management. That the hospitality industry is doing adequately well in relation to her contribution to economic development in Nigeria this is as a result of a good working relationship and working conditions contribute immensely to workers productivity in the hospitality industry.
Conclusion
It was found that a positive correlation exists between the hospitality industry and events managements and that the industry depends almost entirely on the economy, thereby confirming a priori expectation. What this means in effect is that for the hospitality industry to continue to be relevant, government must at all times ensure a stable but steadily rising economy. The services sector employs about 30 percent of Nigeria’s workforce, yet provides about half of its output. Nigeria depended on its large English speaking, well-educated workforce to develop a burgeoning technology sector, as well. Hospitality is a growing portion of Nigeria’s economy with an earnings increase of more than 10 percent from 2010.
Recommendation
The researcher sincerely recommends the findings of this research work to policy makers in Nigeria. The findings of this work will be vital if the leaders and decision makers sincerely want this country to be amongst the 20 most developed countries in the year 2020. The operating environment of the sector should be made conducive enough to attract foreign investors who will improve the level of service rendered by the operators in this sector. Nigerian investors in the industry should as well study foreign hospitality industries and see how to adapt some of their system to enhance theirs here in Nigeria so as to enhanced quality event management
Reference
- Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R., & McDonnell, I. (2008). Festival & Special Event Management (4 ed.). Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
- Arcodia, C., & Barker, T. (2003). The Employability Prospects of Graduates in Event Management: Using Data from Job Advertisements. Paper presented at the Riding the Wave of Tourism and Hospitality Research, CAUTHE.
- Arcodia, C., & Reid, S. (2002). The Mission of Event Management Associations. In
- Woeber (Ed.), City Tourism. Vienna: Springer. Arcodia, C., & Robb, A. (2000). A Future for Event Management: A Taxonomy of Event Management Terms. In
- Allen, R. Harris, L. K. Jago & A. Veal (Eds.), Events Beyond 2000: Setting the Agenda (pp. 154-160). Sydney: Australian Centre for Event Management.
- Bamberger, J. (1997). Essence of the Capability Maturity Model. IEEE Computer, 30(6), 112-114.
- Bartholomew, D. (2002). Event Management : Hype or Hope? Industry Week/IW, 251(4), 29.
